Comments

Comment by Kaylessa

A fish shaped as a dagger that breathes fire on your foes, as well as it seeking your life. A truly dangerous weapon to wield, both for you and for your enemies!

It's one of the new rare fish added in Wrath of the Lich King, and can likely be fished only in Northrend waters. Good luck, fellow fishermen!

Comment by raisingmoon

Cought it within first 10 minutes in Nortrend - pure luck! Very pleased to be first to catch and upload to wowhead. Now if i could only have some of that luck in Booty Bay...

Comment by Toldry

The scary thing is, that this is a disenchantable fish.

Comment by sverrithor

Too bad you can´t cut down trees in WoW

( If you didn´t understand this comment go watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail or read this Link )

Comment by ztrapon

I generally don't see the point in doing percentage breakdowns on rare items in this game because a value of one isn't statistically reliable, and the risk of it often being extreme conditions presented (for example people who are extremely lucky or people who have spent an unusual amount of time trying without success.)

Still, I will do it anyway because I believe this fish is (unless they recently changed the chance of catching the others) the easiest to catch within the One That Didn't Get Away achievement, based on other people's experiences. My own might just contribute to strengthening that theory.

Assuming the Dark Herring is a rare variation of the Fangtooth Herring, it would mean that ~1% of every Fangtooth Herring is a Dark one. I strongly doubt this is the case, but I've never seen it officially denied either.

Other data includes 41 Pygmy Suckerfish, which, in 318 fish caught equals about 13% for every fish caught to include one of those.All of this was fished in Howling Fjord open water with a skill of 488. No schools, no lures and maxed fishing skill.

Comment by Evalena

could you say me, which level you have, while you fishing the dark herring?i fishing 9 hours and have 1700 fishs in my bag but no dark herring -.-could it be, that the fish only can be fisched, if the char is level 78?

Comment by mstigeress

I also have over 1500 casts in pools and out all over that area with no luck. I'm level 74. I wouldn't think level has anything to do with it though. I am using lures and my fishing clothes which gives me 612 fishing. Very frustrating to be waiting for this one fish be "salty". I have over 2500 casts in Bay of Storms and 600 casts in Mulgore. I will post my numbers when/if I catch a rare fish!

Comment by Glodwin

Certainly not, Evalena. I caught it when I was level 70 so you just should keep fishing and hopefully you will catch one someday. Good luck!

Comment by Teuthida

@Evalena: I caught this fish at L70, on my first trek out to Howling Fjord. My fishing skill had just hit 350. Lucky catch!

Comment by tankinarkansas

more to the point, i would like to get an idea where people have been fishing or what time.

i have been fishing primarily in the lakes by the horde village in the north and the alliance fort in the north. both have nice cobalt nodes around them which is a plus.

i have fished around the little island of cauldros, just north of UK as well.

I have fished at various times of the day and night. my guildies will vouch for me on this. I have well over 4000 catches of fish and crates from these things in the last week and have leveled several people's cooking and startin alchemy from this endeavor.

please. Where are you catching these? do you have any suggestions. just from schools or in any of the waters of the fjord?

Comment by ztrapon

Inland zone fishing is very often (not always) the same in any open water within the zone. That said, I have seen confirmed catches of the Dark Herring in:

The water next to Valgarde

The rivers surrounding Cauldros Isle

The lake north of Skörn (where I caught it myself)

Grizzly Hills rivers, open water

All of these reported catches included Bonescale Snapper, Fangtooth Herring and Glacial Salmon. This means that wherever all of these three fish can be caught would most likely be the place to fish the Dark Herring as well. I would even say, as the fish is called Dark Herring, that wherever the Fangtooth Herring can be caught, the Dark one can be caught too. Why? Because this is how fishing mechanics in this game generally works.Don't bother fishing where you cannot catch either of these above mentioned fish, and to be absolutely safe make sure you catch Fangtooth Herrings every now and then.

With that clear, let's move on to fishing skill. I skilled up while fishing for this, using lures until I was maxed base fishing skill (450) because I noticed the "Your fish got away" messages had disappeared. I used my Arcanite Fishing Pole with a fishing line attached, meaning my skill was 488 most of the time. No lures, just maxed skill and my fishing pole.Unless you are getting "Your fish got away" messages, your fishing skill is definitely high enough to catch the Dark Herring. There is no fish in the entire game that requires a significantly higher fishing skill than the other fish in the same water to be caught.

Last, about level. I have read about one level 68 guy catching this on another forum. Two level 70 people has written above they have caught it. Unless Blizzard decided to put some weird level requirement bound to the levels of the zone's quests (I can't promise anything here), this can probably be caught no matter what level you are. Don't worry about not being able to catch this depending on your level. Again, no fish in the game (as far as I know) requires a specific level to be caught. Instead, other factors decided whether you can catch them, such as having flying mount, level requirement on the fish itself (such as this one) or lots of mobs near the water.

Instead of getting too hung up on details like this and trying to find reasons why you haven't caught it yet, try to face the fact that this is an extremely rare fish. This will take a while to get, and the people who post their results are often the lucky ones who haven't been spending countless of times without results. Adapt to what I have said above and then you are fine. The only remaining thing is a lot of time and patience.

Comment by tankinarkansas

fantastic reply. thank you for the info and the encouragement. i've not quit, despite the ballbusting from my friends. :P

good luck everyone.

Comment by antijesse

I got this on my second cast in Northrend. I didn't even know what in the hell it was. Very entertaining.

Incidentally, I also got it in the lake north of Skörn.

Comment by azinja

I had been fishing in Mulgore (for around 500-600 catches) for the 15 pound mudfish for the achievement, but figured I'd go for the more profitable Northrend fishing for a bit.

Positioned myself in Winter's Breath Lake (just north of Skörn) and picked this baby up from a school as lucky catch number 27 (obnoxiously lucky).

I r happy bunny. (Apart from the bit where it's a dagger and I cant equip it and be a super cool glowy eyed cow wielding a badass fish that spits fire!).

(level 74, fishing 366(+95), fishing in Howling Fjord at 46, 20)

Comment by mcomommy

Has anyone been keeping track of times to see if this has a better chance to be fished at certain times of the day (like the nightfin, etc). Just wondering because I caught one after 12 casts off the dock at Valgarde in open water at 3am. Had been fully prepared to spend an hour or more there, and had empty bags ready and waiting for an influx of fish. Imagine my delight/dismay at catching it so soon.

Comment by Gaurei

Does it not strike ANYONE as being quite sad that this FISH has more DPS than weapons wielded by elemental lords (Sulfuras, Thunderfury), or even Illidan Himself?

Comment by Gent

I finally caught my Dark Herring. Caught it out of a "Fangtooth Herring" pool right outside Valgarde. My exact location was 61,61 right between the rocks as a pool spawns there. Since you can also catch open water, I got the best of both worlds without having to move.

For the record I spent a little over 5000 casts in the entire zone trying for just this fish.

Comment by Grimme

Comment by Alecstarr

Much like Gent, I caught the dark herring while fishing at the rocks, just to the right of the dock entrance in Valgarde. I had to use a Aquadynamic bobber, as my skill was around 305 initially, just kept fishing there. I think my base skill was around 350 when I caught it.. Took about 450 tries, and a short time after that, got the 500 fish caught achievment, as this is the first I've fished since the Achievment system went in. I didn't keep numbers, but these are close to the best of my rememberance.

Comment by Alecstarr

And also, it was daylight, and yes, a lot of fish were getting away, about 30%. To clarify, my last post, it was around the 450th fish caught. I certainly cast a lot more than that.

Comment by blckA

Took approximately an hour and a half to catch this little nutter.Have been fishing at valgarde the whole time.

Comment by Slyth

I have to add that I only fished in the Fangtooth Herring schools since (it got mentioned a few times) it's assumed that the Dark Herring replaces the Fangtooth Herring by a small chance on a catch. Therefore schools = way higher chance to catch a herring = less time needed to get a Dark Herring instead of a Fangtooth one. And the schools respawn that quick, that you'll never run out of them.

Comment by Lukahn

Fished in open water for a while before switching to the pool fishing strategy, here's what I've come up with (not counting crates, suckerfish, or crystallized water). I've mostly been circling Caldemere Lake and Winter's Breath Lake for the fangtooth pools.

Comment by bluesrage

90 Fangtooth Herrings3 Crystalize Waters4-5 Reinforced Crates2 Random Catches due to thinking the cast was in the pool and it wasn't.

Fishing is at 450 with Seth's pole and the Eterium Line. Like Slyth I only fished in the pools.

I am sure I just got lucky, but that is what I have. Good luck to everone.

Comment by TisHerself1999

I caught a Dark Herring this afternoon at about 2:00 P.M. Central Standard Time across from the landing pier at Valgarde. To be honest, I didn't even know this Achievement exsisted so imagine my surprise when this thing landed on my hook when all I was wanting to catch were the Pygmy Suckerfish for my alchemy. Best of luck to you in your endeavor to catch one and I hope, if you haven't already, you do very soon. :-)

Comment by Lumee23

Got my Dark Herring fishing in the schools around Utgarde. Took about 300 regular herrings before I caught it.

Comment by baffler

I fished around Valgarde in the Fangtooth Herring School, got mine in 5 casts. Couldn't believe it because I'm never that lucky normally.

Comment by Gilius

This is quite possibly the most frustrating experience I've ever had with WoW.

Currently I've been fishing moving between the locations in Howling Fjord mentioned mainly Cauldros Island and the lake above Skorn.

I've at the very least filled 3x20 slot bags full of fish (this is not counting the few stacks of pygmy I caught).

That's 60 spaces filled with stacks of 20 fish. That's 1200 casts so far and nothing. This isn't counting crates because their contents will stack up on some cloth/ore/leather already in the bag (so i can't estimate how many of those I've caught).

This may be good money with the pygmy fish but I've been fishing for 2 days w/o any break and still no Herring... I really want this over with. One that didn't get away... is going to ruin fishing for me...

Anyone else out there experiencing this kind of frustration, I feel your pain ><

Comment by Teshiruu

I've emptied 3 20 slot bags easily, EASILY 6-7 times and still nothing. Bought my epic flyer purely selling Pygmy's. I always told myself it was about the patience and follow-through, but this is Bananas. Best of luck to you, hope you get one :}

Comment by Mouk

Caught in the lake at Fort Wildervart on a Monday Morning between 6.30 and 7:30 am CET

Comment by mekanikos

I switch between Caldaros Isle (HF), the waterfall northeast of New Agamand (HF), Drak'tharon Keep (GH)(there's a moat that you can go and fish on and be pretty safe since no one really flies over the lake there) and the little island in the river outside Conquest Hold (GH).

I've caught 5000 fish (6000 total, from looking for pinchy and coins) and no luck so far.

Comment by PeterisP

Howling Fjord rivers seem to be a good place - got one out of a Herring School within approx. 250 casts.

Took long enough to get him, but it was definitely well worth it because I got my salty title along with it !

Comment by Lukahn

Since there's no database of catch rates and 'tards keep voting down the stats posted here, I'll post mine up again for anyone else that cares. And now editing this post since it finally showed up.

2195 Fangtooth Herring1 Dark Herring

That's out of 4361 total catches while going for other rares, I went off the theory that every Fangtooth Herring you catch has a chance to be a Dark one and fished only from herring pools. Thank god for being able to watch movies while you fish.

Comment by Anarchy

Since this is a dagger, and one-hand, a rogue could dual wield this and Mutilate other players.Imagine that, being mutilated by fish.

Also, warriors have heroic throw which throws their main hand weapon at the target; imagine you're fighting some warrior and you're on low health then all of a sudden he throws a fish at you, and you die.

Comment by gigantomachy

43 Fangtooth Herring3 Reinforced Crates1 Dark Herring

All herring schools north of skorn.

Comment by Anarchy

1) Imagine the sound of being slapped in the face by a big wet fish, played 8 times simultaneously.2) Add a name for a rogue move3) ? ?4) Profit!

Comment by Kiiros

Caught the Dark Herring in the Howling Fjord in the lake north of Skorn

Comment by Haestloli

Been fishing on Herring Schools now for over than 3000 catches, and no Dark Herring. I'm not amused seeing ppl catching this one with couple casts.

Comment by Kilraze

seriously, I'm at a little over 3000 casts and no Dark Herring yet, north of Skorn. What do you guys do to pass the time while fishing for this?

Comment by Kilraze

Hah yeah, I've been watching anime on my other screen, 9 hours straight of fishing and now I'm at over 4000 fish. I just about finished all of Ghost in the Shell first season.

Comment by quebmb

Fished for little under an hour this morning in Valgarde, right next to the burning building (coords 60/60). Granted I spend the majority of my downtime fishing in this exact same spot... there have been thousands of casts before this fish reared it's head. I wasn't even trying for it and suddenly an achievement flashed up on my screen. A rogue friend of mine is very happy (and disturbed) indeed to now be wielding a fish that does more damage then his heroic badge fist weapons...

Comment by Elsombra

8451 casts and no dark herring - thank God that there was a House marathon yesterday and I have all of them recorded :-P

Comment by oscob

decided to try fishing in northrend once i got my skill up. took me a couple casts to catch it cause the fish kept getting away, caught it on my first successful fish though. easy achievement.

Comment by valerie4262

I got mine today at the lake north of Skorn, Howling Fjord. 44, 22. I have cought well over 3000 other fish but just kept at it. When a herring pool popped up i would go fish it buut then jsut in the open water. Like everyone else i was just watching TV and heard the achievment ding, along with Acomplished Angler! I have many bags full of fish to be sold on the AH, but best advice is pick a spot and keep at it. As it's a random rare drop, some lucky people will catch it first try, then there are the rest of us, 3000+ catches.GL have fun

Comment by quebmb

Here's a question that I was wondering. I have caught this fish once as a comment above stated...but I was wondering if anyone knew if one was able to catch this fish again after the achievement has already been met? My rogue friend has decided to try to for a second one so he can duel wield fish heheh. I have a mind to help him fish for it, but if I'm not eligible to catch it a second time it'd be useless for me to try. Has anyone come across an instance where the same toon has caught two of these?

Comment by Quickkill

dude but for example the ilidan weapons are meant to be for a lvl 70 character...yes this fish has more dps then they but its meant for a lvl 78 character which has more hp and so on

Comment by Mazikins

I was able to catch this guy in open water in Howling Fjord while in a raid group. In case anyone was wondering if a raid group prevents you from catching him - it does not.

Comment by Kilraze

FINALLY CAUGHT IT!

7379 non-Dark Herring fish1 Dark Herring

I was fishing in the lake north of Skorn for a good 7k of the fish i caught, and then near the last 50 fish I caught I moved to the small little gyser lakes that touch Camp Winterhoof just for kicks(I mean really, a fish in a steaming pool of sulfur?), and that where I caught the Dark Herring. Like other people, I did not catch it from a fangtooth herring pool, I spent well over 30 hours trying to complete this last achievement, and finally people will call me... Salty Avek

(I'll edit the %'s of what I caught when my head hurts less from all those fish)

Comment by Zulayah

Fishing at Valgarde Waterfall, top.7 Hours 32 minutes and counting, still no Dark Herring.Fishing Catches and percents so far:

Still no Herring. I'll keep you all posted. Truly worthy of a Master Angler.

Comment by Snaga

Fished in herring schools by the theory that it's a rare Fangtooth Herring replacement. I got it very quickly personally but i'm sure it was just luck.

Comment by Rahkitty

So I've just started my journey to get this fish. I've been going for about an hour now with:83 Fangtooth Herring60 Bonescale Snapper13 Glacial Salmon10 Pygmy Suckerfishand 3 of those crates with stuff in it

For the most part I am fishing on the western side of Cauldros Isle. There are 2 fishing pools that spawn there, around 55, 35. I fish in the pools when they spawn and then in the open water when they aren't there. Hopfully I'll be a lucky one. Will post with the final results once I've caught it. :)

Comment by Zohra

So I've begun my journey to catch this fish. I've been fishing for about 2-3hrs and here is my stash thus far:129 Fangtooth Herring102 Bonescale Snapper19 Pygmy Suckerfish32 Glacial Salmonand 4 boxes with stuff in it

I've been staying on the western side of Cauldros Isle. There are 2 Fangtooth Herring pools that spawn there, around 55, 36. I fish in the pools when they spawn and in the open water then they aren't around. My fishing is capped and I have Seth's Graphite Fishing Pole, so no lures have been used. I keep my sound up to hear the splashes, but other than that, to pass the time I watch videos. :) Hopfully I'll be one of the lucky ones. I'll post my results when I get the sucker.

Comment by Camay

To give an alternate story to all the posters who managed to catch this fish easily or quickly, let me share my experience. I've been working on this fish on and off for about 5 weeks with very little luck. It's the last achievement I need for my Salty title. Right now I have 3 guild bank tabs filled with Herring and Salmon, a bank alt with a bank+bags filled with Pygmy Oil and those don't even include the fish I've already sold on the AH to the tune of about 6,000g.

Casts: 17,619Dark Herring: 0

UPDATE! Finally got it. It took 18,443 casts. Never fishing again.

Comment by CrimsonPhantom

Please don't feed the troll.

Comment by spleenseer

You can catch it multiple times. It's not listed as unique, so there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to. It's just so rare that catching it twice on one character isn't likely.

Comment by Sensualcake

Can anyone confirm that this fish does not pop up the "Bind on equip" box that usually appears from rare fish? If it doesn't, then I can set it to auto-loot and fish without worry.

I know I lost a Mr. Pinchy and an Old Ironjaw to that stupid box :-(

Comment by shadowaninja

"AND YOU MUST CUT DOWN THE MIGHTIEST TREE IN THE FOREST... WIIIIIIIITH... A HERRING!"

So that's how the druids cut down Vordrassil...

Comment by raskol

The thing that comforts me most when fishing for it is that I'll probably be able to sell all the fish for a decent sum. Closing on 2k catches.

Comment by sunami

Caught in a Fangtooth Herring School, so put me in the category of this being the rare version of Fangtooth Herring, which makes sense given that all the other rare fish on the list are rare versions of some fish. As such, fishing in a pool gives a much better chance at finding this fish than just open water.

Comment by Ault

I had my Dark Herring enchanted to give it a nice glow, but alas, it doesn't show at all. I asked a GM, but the mail I got says it's not a bug. So if you want an enchant just for looks, don't bother, you won't see a thing. *sigh*

Comment by paniik

It's not meaning to brag but i got 2 on my rogue :) so fun to gank someone in BG with it..

btw, any ideas what this would go for on AH, never seen one for sale

Comment by Zalman

I have now caught 5500 fish in the lake north of skörn and still no Dark Herring. It's the last achievement for my title. Some of the droprates in this game is silly :/

Comment by eazypriest

All I can say is catching this thing with 300-ish casts is a blessing. I am fishing next to Valgarde in a combination of open water and herring pools and have yet to see the big one. I am on cast 1234 and counting.

Comment by fian

This fish doesn't just "seek your life" it actually steals it by the cunning means of having an insanely low droprate and hiding amongst all the fangtooth herring in howling fjord.

2,000 catches into grinding for this fish, last achievement I need for the salty title. That title will be my title of choice, since it takes more work than any of the others in my opinion.

Comment by mrmegloton

Just caught mine after fishing exclusively in Fangtooth Herring Schools around Winter's Breath Lake. The total number of Fangtooh Herrings caught was 395 and the Dark was # 396. I decided to take this approach based on all the people saying they were in the thousands in general open water. If you are one of those people i seriously suggest you start fishing only in the pools.

Comment by Gretzky

After around 2000 casts, I'm a proud owner of this bad ass. I feel I need to mention a few things.

It has been confirmed by a GM (although I forgot the source, sorry) that the drop rate from pools and open-water is exactly the same, therefore fishing the herring schools won't make it for you any faster. It is not a rare version of the ordinary Fangtooth Herring, it's the separate fish that can be caught anywhere where the standard herrings can... that means Howling Fjord and some parts of Grizzly Hills.

Also, as I just tested, Mongoose enchant won't add any glow to this fish, unfortunately.

Comment by robog2

Got it from my 3rd cast in Howling fjord really lucky :D

Comment by Strexx

2000 fish catched and counting.

Atleast there is money in these fishes, so not a complete waste like trying to get one of the others on the list.

Come on salty :(

Comment by dkdruid

Well, I don't know if this is due to the new patch (3.0.8) or my being unbelieveably lucky (which i doubt), but in about 94 casts in Fangtooth Herring schools in the lake below Fort Wildervar I fished up approx83 Fangtooth Herring3 Glacial Salmon3 Reinforced Crates3 Crystallized Water2 Dark Herring and 63 Pygmy Suckerfish with the various fish and items.

Also the Proc for fire damage was replaced with 50 crit rating

Comment by fian

3k casts last week before patch, 5 casts after patch, having read a comment here about 2 catches in 100 casts since patch hit this morning.

Not a co-incidencence I imagine, drop rate has been bufffed. They should change the tooltip now - it no longer "seeks your life" by stealing days of it at a time dodging your casts.

Comment by fian

Having read a post about buffed drop rate on this fish since patch 3.08 I went to howling fjord to try my luck. I have over 3,000 casts in the fjord over the last week, was going to switch to elsewhere after patch since I have so many wotlk fish in bank and since pygmy suckerfish now worthless.

5 casts at lunch time today and it was in my bag. I just don't have the willpower to continue fishing to see if that was a fluke or if the drop rate has been buffed, but I am definately leaning towards the latter.

If it has been buffed they should change the tooltip. It used to "seek your life" by robbing you of hours of it in a mind numbed haze of cast, wait, click, cast, wait, click....etc. Now it is a mellow little fish who is nice and kind to everyone - presumably that's why the fire-breathing animation is gone too.

The Fire proc has been replaced with 50 crit rating as well.

Comment by fian

Having read a post about buffed drop rate on this fish since patch 3.08 I went to howling fjord to try my luck. I have over 3,000 casts in the fjord over the last week, was going to switch to elsewhere after patch since I have so many wotlk fish in bank and since pygmy suckerfish now worthless.

5 casts at lunch time today and it was in my bag. I just don't have the willpower to continue fishing to see if that was a fluke or if the drop rate has been buffed, but I am definately leaning towards the latter.

If it has been buffed they should change the tooltip. It used to "seek your life" by robbing you of hours of it in a mind numbed haze of cast, wait, click, cast, wait, click....etc. Now it is a mellow little fish who is nice and kind to everyone - presumably that's why the fire-breathing animation is gone too.

The Fire proc has been replaced with 50 crit rating as well.

Comment by FuxieDK

The fish is BoE... Wonder if you can get the achievement, if you buy it from AH or you fish with friends and one catches it and you just /trade it among yourselves..

Comment by Tejh

It seems that the drop rate for this fish has been buffed. Upon reading this, I went to the lake north of Skorn in Howling Fjord. In 3 1/2 hours I caught two of these bad boys, couldn't have been more than 500 casts. Bug perhaps?

Comment by mist3h

I followed the advise to only fish the Fangtooth Herring schools in the lake north of Skorn, with great succes. I can highly recommend it!

Comment by Sensualcake

After over 1000 fish caught by fishing over the waterfall above Valgarde, I never came across this fish. Come 3.0.8, I decided to try my luck fishing in schools only. 81 casts later and the fish was mine. (Salty Sensualcake... has a disturbing ring to it)

I'm still extremely skeptical about the drop rate of the fish in and out of the pools, and I attribute my catch to dumb luck. That doesn't mean you guys can give up though. You will catch the fish sooner or later, just keep on fishing :-)

Comment by toastcat

Going for the "One That Didn't Get Away" achievement, I had tried first in the lake in Mulgore for 1700 casts with no luck. The fish I caught here gave my alts and lower level guildies a nice boost to their low level cooking, but the fish I caught were near worthless to sell.

I then moved to Azshara under the advice of others posted on wowhead and again found no results after 700 casts. I could sell these fish for slightly more mostly due to jagal clam meat and some occasional pearls.

Next, I tried under the advice of other posters to go to the Night Elf starting zone, which was rather tricky as a member of the Horde. After over a thousand casts and more near worthless fish, I was done with this approach. I decided that if I was gonna spend this amount of time, I would go for the Dark Herring.

I wasn't one of the lucky ones, in fact while I was fishing two other folks came, got the rare fish, and left. I spent a few hours a night over the course of a week and half. I fished in both open water and in schools - in lakes and rivers - in Fjord and Grizzly.

I finally caught the fish in a fangtooth Herring School in "Winter's Breath Lake." If you run around the lake, you'll notice that some areas are listed as simply "Howling Fjord" and not the name of the lake. I don't know if this makes a difference. I estimated about 5,000 casts total and 456 casts in the area where I finally caught him. I would fish while watching a movie and kept it on auto loot with only the volume of the fish bobber turned to full volume. There was no pop-up loot window as with Mr. Pinchy, the Sewer Rat and other rare fish finds.

One last thing - the stats on the fish have changed since the latest patch. He's no longer listed as "Increases attack power by 766 in Cat, Bear, Dire Bear, and Moonkin forms only.Chance on hit: Blasts the enemy for 70 Fire damage." but instead says simply "Equip: Improves critical strike rating by 50" Just an FYI for anyone who might be disappointed after spending so long trying to catch this bad boy.

Happy Fishing and Good Luck!

BTW - the fish I caught going for the Dark Herring totalled about 3K in gold from AH by the time I was done and I made many Alchemists in my guild happy with the Pygmy Suckerfish.

Comment by CleDvy

Caught one today in Grizzly Hills at 29.3, 52.0. I'd been fishing a Glacial Salmon pool, and threw out one last cast after I'd fished out the pool and the pool despawned.

Comment by Valderath

I caught this in a Fangtooth Herring School near Skorn on my first cast!

Comment by Murrey

Howcome mine is +50 crit rating instead of druid stuff and fireblast?

Comment by Garadan

I actually caught this fish while trying to round up mats to get to my Northrend Gourmet (45). I was only half paying attention when I heard the achievement ding. A pleasant surprise it was. I was thinking of the irony of a druid in cat form being gutted by this.

Comment by eclectic778

Caught yesterday evening in Caldemere Lake in a pool. 7 casts. No joke. 6 fangtooh, 4 suckerfish and a dark herring. A fellow guild member has over 4000 attempts and nothing. Random numbers ftw.

Comment by Edelan

Just got my Dark Herring... 7,551 casts/catches. Like a few people already mentioned, I figured since I was going to be doing this a while I'd head out to Howling Fjord and at least earn a little gold on the side. I had been fishing pools and open water near Winterhoof Village for about 1,200 casts and then moved to the more profitable Glacial Salmon pools in Grizzly Hills.

I fished for three weeks, 2-3 hours of fishing per night (I love you netflix), and did not miss a single cast. I went home today for my lunch break and figured I'd hop on to take in a few fish before going back to work. I was actually trying to get a stack of salmon for a friend before heroics so I didn't have to do it later tonight. Got the stack and crossed a Herring pool on my way to vendor some greys from last night at the Apoth camp ... third cast in the Herring pool ... saw the achievement ding ... hearthed ... and logged.

I don't know what I'm going to do with my WoW time now ... level an alt? PVP? I feel so ... unmotivated for anything ...

7,551 casts ... sigh. I have no desire to fish again ... EVER. 75g a stack of salmon is nice ... but screw fishing ... I'm SO done.

edit: spelling =/

Comment by killer713

Just got this after about an hour of fishing in the lake north of Skorn in Howling Fjord. I fished only from herring schools.

Comment by ceng

Just got mine fishing out of the Fangtooth Herring school at 41,18, Winter's Breath Lake, Howling Fjord (see map). Took 72 casts from Herring pools this evening although I've been fishing for the Dark Herring since WoTLK came out. I didn't track every cast but it's definitely been in the thousands.

This was the last achievement I needed for 'Salty'. Good luck to those still fishing!

Comment by Nieves

Fishing in the open water (hardly any pools) just next to Valgarde keep, gave me:

Comment by Nikotine

I spent about 2 hours fishing Elwynn Forest at Crystal Lake, 5 hours at Stonebull Lake in Mulgore and 3 hours fishing Bay of Storms in Azshara; got about 15 10 lb Mud Snappers, 8 12 lb Mud Snappers and zero 15 lb Mud Snappers. After reading about this fish a bit more and the possible increased drop rate I decided to try it out. I went to Howling Fjord to fish in the lake above Skorn. On my second cast in a pool of Fangtooth Herring I got the Dark Herring. Extreme luck? Yes. Extreme Anglin'? You bet.

GL and happy fishing. :)

Comment by Warondar

Caught one just outside Camp Winterhoof in Howling Fjord tonight just trying to hit 350 fishing to get my next fishing training level.I was fishing a Fangtooth Herring school, got my 350 skill up, and was about to leave but decided to finish off the school. Glad I did because on that last cast I caught the Dark Herring. heheAnyways, I'm lvl73 using a +25 fishing rod, +100 fish attractor, for a total of 475 fishing and rarely get any lost fish in this Howling Fjord zone.Best of luck to all other fishermen.

Comment by Varaben

So i know theres a lot of anecdotal evidence out there for these fish taking 6k casts or 1 cast or whatever. Im here to pass on my anecdote. Ive read that fishing in schools is better than in the open. There is no evidence to suggest this besides lucky people like myself. I took 100 casts to get this fish and i did so 90% out of herring schools. Ive read somewhere that the dark herring is a rare drop that replace a regular fangtooth herring. This makes sense because as we know certain mining nodes are rare spawns from common nodes. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen, but try the schools first imo. It cant hurt. Took me like 20 minutes : /.

Comment by Lerooy

39 Fangtooth Herring1 Dark Herring

Only 40 cast ^^

Comment by Nemo2342

I'm kind of sad that it doesn't blast people with fire now. Maybe I'll get it enchanted with Icebreaker and take it on a tour of the BGs.

Comment by Jinro

just caught my dark herring, yay :)

did it at the lake north of Skörn, and it only took me 60 casts. I also only fished in herring schools, which seems to be the best strat for this fish (I've read reports from other players who achieved quick catches by only fishing in herring schools).

Comment by Hagalidhare

Imagine that you are in a Battleground... And then really fast comes a rogue and...TWO HERRINGS THAT WANNA EAT YOU!

Then you can tell the story about when two herrings pwned ur ass:P

Comment by mandydax

I just caught this and was thinking about giving it to a rogue for PvP, but of course, it should be enchanted. So which would look best, if not be best numberwise? Much to my disappointment, this fish does not take glows.

Take a look for yourself. Items links:Icebreaker:/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Shift-click this to place a link into a chat message: \124cff1eff00\124Hitem:44703:3239:0:0:0:0:0:0:0\124h\124h\124r");Unholy (This would be the best visual, green skulls orbiting the fish's head.):/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Shift-click this to place a link into a chat message: \124cff1eff00\124Hitem:44703:1899:0:0:0:0:0:0:0\124h\124h\124r");Mongoose:/script DEFAULT_CHAT_FRAME:AddMessage("Shift-click this to place a link into a chat message: \124cff1eff00\124Hitem:44703:1899:2673:0:0:0:0:0:0\124h\124h\124r");

I'm a paladin myself, so I can't use it anyway, but I was hoping for an awesome gift for someone. :(

Comment by burritostand

peripheral vision and sounds is what i use to fish ... have my WoW sounds up full so i can hear over my movie/tv/music

Currently at 1104 Fish in Daggercap Bay across from the Ally port and no herring yet :( will edit with stats once i get it

Edit: Jack i do that too i just watch a movie on a diff pc i usually don't look at chat but every so often ill see a tell or a /s calling me a bot because i wouldn't reply or port them (since i am a mage) and it really bothers me when they do

If you want to auto-open the Reinforced Crates just make this macro and use it instead of your regular fishing skill

/script UseItemByName("Reinforced Crate");/use Fishing(Grand Master)

It will auto-open crates on fishing cast assuming you have auto-loot enabled

another small tip get the mod LootFilter and have it delete your 'Bonescale Snappers' ... this will significantly increase the amount of time you can fish for without having to empty your bags (on my server snappers sell for ~1g/Stack so it is not worth the time to list them and hope they sell and it is not worth the time to cook them for the higher vendor sell price b/c when you have ~30 stacks of them it is a feat in it self too cook all of them)

Comment by ScytheNoire

Caught at same pools others mention, the lake above Skorn in Howling Fjord, I just kept going around to the Herring pools that spawn, caught it. Won't say how few catches though, but definitely go for the Herring pools, not open water, probably better chance.

Comment by Fruhauf

I've begun trying to catch Dark Herring due to my overwhelming frustration trying to catch the "15 pound mud snapper" for the same achievement (the one that didn't get away). I'm up to 2200 casts in Northshire Valley - Elwynn Forest for the 15lb one and decided its more worthwhile to attempt this, since the fish i'm wasting my time catching are actually worth something.

Anyways, point being, if you're going to go for that achievement, I'd say its worth the time to try and get this one since the fish you'll be catching in the meantime can be cooked into valuable buff food for lvl 80 raiding.

Good luck =)

Comment by Wilia

At first I was fishing in Grizzly Hills but then I moved to Howling Fjord and fished mostly in schools. My numbers are:

I think I got the Dark Herring from the school but I'm not sure - I didn't recast when the bobber was outside the school.

Comment by Footy

Just went to Howling Fjord, fished one Fangtooth Herring from the school and next fish caught from it was Dark Herring :)

Comment by Shammygotgun

On AH atm, 333g bid 444 BO. In case anyone was wondering

Comment by uwang

I just got this item while fishing at Silmyr Lake Northeast of Shatt, so this isn't something you can only get in Northrend. I have no use for it on my Paladin so I might send it to alt or put it up on the Auction House.

Notes: Can only be caught during the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza.

Time: Sundays 14:00-16:00 only.

Commentary: Ultra-rare catch from Schools of Tastyfish during the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza. Unlike the other rare fish, there is no quest involved - just equip the fish as a weapon. The Rockhide Strongfish is the rarest of all contest fish - estimated at less than 1 in 1000 catches. Most anglers will never catch it.

Comment by Hitoritaka

I caught two, within an hour of each other, and now have no clue what to do with them.

Comment by bznotins

400 casts in Shadowglen, no luck on rare fish.

5 casts in the lake just north of Skorn, and caught the Dark Herring from a Herring pool.

RNG smiled on me.

Comment by psychoninja911

Just fished this dude up off the Valgarde docks.

Not sure if I should keep him or not...

Comment by Gorgonnus

This must be the bests fish to use for Killing! hey quess what this is a reckord 100 comments lol! this is the rarest fish to hold in the game!

Comment by weenietot

As said previously, this has to be a lotto 'drop' from whenever you would normally fish up a Fangtooth Herring. I fished for about 2 hours in Fort Wildevar in the Fjord with no luck. I pick it up again and say 'Hey, I might as well try Herring pools'. First cast into a pool, got Dark Herring and my title. It makes sense.

Just my luck I guess... At least I'm making good money with the salmon and I finally get to see all Futurama Seasons ^^.

Comment by Mick

At 13937 AP the Dark Herring will exceed the damage per hit of Sinister Revenge.

This seems... unlikely. But you know, reach for the stars.

Comment by Fontanell

Caught mine today from a Fangtooth Herring school in Howling Fjord. Took me 7 catches to get it.

Comment by Bathrezz

I can tell you that you can not catch the dark herring off the docks in Fort Wildervar

Comment by Poddubniy

Been doing the salty achievement. Went to Azshara in search of a rare fish. Been there for a few hours. No luck. While that i been reading the wowhead comments, and started to look of a dark herring one. Decided to switch to Northrend instead, cause of new fish can be used for new cooking things. And so i've started to fishing at the Valgarde's port. Took me TWO pools, which was only 3 casts to get it. I still can't belive i get it so fast.

Comment by neppy

I would also highly recommend fishing in Fangtooth Herring schools instead of open water. I sat in Winter's Breath Lake fishing for days in open water. I caught at least 50 stacks of fish, with no Dark Herring. Then I read the later comments in this thread and decided to change my strategy and fish in the schools. I got the Dark Herring on my 10th cast, in the second school I fished in. I'm relieved to be finished, but it's kind of sad that I would have gotten this achievement if only I had fished in the school that was 30 yards away from me all this time...

Comment by doc89

Wow, I guess I got really lucky based on what I'm reading here. Took me about 15 minutes all told. Just fishing in Valgarde near the docks; not going after schools or anything.

Comment by evankimori

Now imagine going to a repair NPC and giving this to them and asking them to repair it with a straight face.

Comment by furzbeli

13 Fangtooth Herring1 Crystallized Water1 Dark Herring

Fished in waters of Howling Fjordl

Lucky Me, happy fishing for you rest :)

Comment by evankimori

Even more interesting: this fish has durability points.

Now imagine going up to a repair NPC after a hard day's work of grinding/questing, handing it to them and asking them to repair it. With a straight face.

Comment by Lupos

You absolutely need to fish from herring schools to get this guy. It can take you thousands of casts in open water, but in Herring Schools, most likely less than 100. Just find a circuit of schools in HF, and you will be done in less than an hour.

Comment by Putuk

Comment by Thorgred

This fish is interesting (not just because it is a fish) but also because it seems incorrectly itemized.

This is the only iLevel 187 green item in the game. It also requires lv78 to wield: unlike the iL182 greens that require lv80, and more like the iL187 Blues that need lv78...

More to come

Comment by noobi666

Its eeeevil!

Comment by donmarker

Will buying this off the auction house reward the achievement? I doubt it, just thought I'd ask just to be sure.

Comment by hockeytownrox

You absolutely need to fish from herring schools to get this guy. It can take you thousands of casts in open water, but in Herring Schools, most likely less than 100. Just find a circuit of schools in HF, and you will be done in less than an hour.

"Most likely less than 100"? Absolutely, 500% false. Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. I have read countless posts about people who have thousands of casts inside the pools and still nothing. So please spare us the use of irresponsible speculation such as "most likely" or comments that are not fact based.

Here's a fact, I have 16 hours invested in fishing for this fish so far. Over 4,000 casts in open water and well over 1,000 casts moving from pool to pool in the Fjord. The lake above Skorn is the best bet because of the pool rotation but DO NOT listen to anyone who says "it will most likely take 100 casts" or "you should catch this in about an hour". Those people know nothing about the game and the statistics of rare drops. You will MOST LIKELY NOT catch this fish in an hour and you will MOST LIKELY NOT catch this in 100 casts. You know what MOST LIKELY will happen? I probably have 16 more hours to go, and thousands upon thousands of casts left before I catch this.

Be prepared to spend a lot of time, irregardless if there are a few lucky posters who have seemingly caught this in a short amount of time.

Comment by hockeytownrox

Nope...cannot buy it for the achivement...you need to catch it.

Comment by Ahnassi

Just caught this after about nine straight hours of fishing. After fishing for eight hours unsuccessfully from the open water in the lake north of Skorn, I read through all the comments on this fish and noticed that a disproportionate amount of people seemed to be getting this fish after only a few hundred (or less) casts by fishing only in pools. I decided to give it a shot, and after one circuit of Howling Fjord, I caught it after about 80 casts in only herring pools.

Though many people seem to maintain that the droprate is the same in open water as in schools, my beliefs have been swayed by my luck after switching only to schools. My numbers were as follows (not counting Pygmy Suckerfish):

Now, this may very well be attributed to luck, but based on my experience catching this fish as well as others' posted here, I am inclined to say that spending your time fishing the pools may make this a much quicker grind. Not to mention, fewer mostly useless Bonescale Snapper!

Good luck to all who are trying for this rare catch!

Comment by Kelticfox

And this is where I'm now hated......

After deciding to level my fishing to 450 (it was on 431) I looted Dark Herring on my fifth cast.Flew to Valgarde and noticed 2 Fangtooth Herring pools right next to the flight plan.

Comment by mike2022

I just caught one.I was fishing off of Cauldros Island just north of UK in Fangtooth Herring Pools.First pool got me the northrend angler achievement, and I think 4th pool I fished up the Dark Herring.

Comment by Drun

Who says you don't cut down trees in WoW, I am a tree druid and I have been cut down many times in the BG's.

Comment by Pwningdanoobs

that is one bad ass herring lawlz

Comment by zzyyxx

holy sh*t lucky... was just doing some questing in the area, and flew into Valgarde keep, saw a school of herring there figured why not and bam first cast. thought for sure id be on this for months

on a side note spent like an hour or so up by skorn the other day and had no luck... plus base skill was like 300 so got sick of the "fish got away" message

Comment by walruscannon

Finally caught that little bugger after 854 total casts in the waters of skorn.

Good Luck

Comment by shroomgirl

I just got that dark herring for the achievement....Just wanted to post that i flew to valgarde in howling fjord and noticed that little cove across the water from the port is called something dagger..like daggerkeep cove or something...so i thougth since the item for achievement was a dagger there might be something to that. I went in and there was 1 school of fangtooth herring. I came back and another had spawned in a different spot. It was when i fished from the second school of fangtooth herring i obtained the item for the achievement. So maybe this was just a coincidence or maybe not...the place was by the dock in valgarde across the water..its like a tunnel that goes in a semi-circle. Good luck and hope this helps!

Comment by Wanky

I bought this off the AH for a 20g buyout for my Rogue, now 79. It's a fantastic... er... fish to use for the crazy burst and crit bonus. However, I'm looking at replacing it soon with Knife of the Tarnished Soul, just to get that Hit Rating and improved stats. But I highly recommend using this dagger/fish for 70-79 Battlegrounds!

Comment by rsmith7

Unfortunately, weapon enchant glows do not appear on this weapon.

Comment by Amadais5820

Got this bad boy on about my 100th cast (rough estimate) in the lake above Skorn, fishing nothing but schools, it kinda scared me cause i didnt expect it to drop lawl.....after that i killed some horde with it, just for the fun of killing people with a fish.

Comment by colar

I got the dark herring after exactly 93 tries. Initially I held off doing the rare fishing because I was still missing many other fishing achievements. Now that I got all but STV contest, I decided to tackle this. After reading this and on Wowhead, Dark Herring seemed to be the best choice just for achievement so I went to the lake north of Skorn. 93 cats later I got it.

I also fished up 68 Pygmy Suckerfish; 73% alongside with other fishes or almost 3 in 4 casts.They sell better to vendor than on AH because vendor don't take 10% cut like AH and AH is same price as vendor.

Comment by Mdj71

Got mine today in Grizzly Hills, was fishing for Glacial salmon but must have missed the school.Was fishing in the Blue sky logging grounds area when it suddenly appeared, and since i wasnt looking for the herring i got a huge shock when i got the achievement :)

Comment by WakemanCK

Moreover, this is the highest ilvl green in WotLK!

Comment by taliaz

Caught this yesterday at cauldros lake... I had started just fishing and after catching 23 glacial salmon, 87 bonescale snapper, and about 20 fangtooth herring I switched to farming just the pools. It went much quicker than I imagined it would, made about 3 laps around the lake north of skorn before the pools stopped spawning, at that point I ventured down the river to lake cauldros. So totals are...

Comment by z3n0mal4

I am so happy now , i just got the fish . It's been almost one week of daily fishing in the winters breath lake , for like 2-3hours a day . I only miss Booty Bay fishing tournament , and it's kinda hard to make that one too . But i'll give my best , since SALTY is indeed a hard to get title , and for those that know it means respect :D

Comment by KainDarkfire

I want to see this being used with Dancing Rune Weapon.

Or maybe it would be Dancing Rune Fish?

Comment by Bent

The skill required to fish in the area is 380, to stop getting "The fish got away" skill 475.

Comment by Fatalcurse

I agree with whoever mentioned a 2h tuna.

We need one.

Comment by Draegnar

Tip: Don't use FishingBuddy's Auto Loot function if you are aiming to catch this fish for the first time , it closed my loot as soon as i opened , leaving only a "Adding Dark Herring to location Howling Fjord" behind :(

Comment by stathisdjs

LF Bad Smell remover...and if possible a mount with 2 vendors so i can get rid of this....smell...HELP!ITS HORRIBLE!I can't move...i...am...dying!...Wonder what's on tv right now...Wonder how bad the people i ambushed smell like now... :o

Comment by wonni

After reading the comments here, I set out to get myself a Dark Herring.Expecting to fish for a while, I went to the lake north of Skorn like the other guy.

7 stacks of Fangtooth Herring later, it was mine :)

I almost fell of my deskchair in exitement :D

Comment by Irishman2020

What are you talking about? There are tons of living trees just waiting to be cut down! Now, which is the mightiest tree in the forest... I cant think of a large tree boss but those protectors in Darnassus or the ones in Colderra....

Comment by Akromae

Well, I fished one up in Valgard last night from a Fangtooth Herring School. I'm a lvl 51 shaman, so I'm not sure I can actually use this lovely fish... but wanted to add the "caught by lvl 51" to the mix in case people are wondering.

Comment by glhex

Just in case you were wondering, enchanting with fiery weapon does not produce a fiery fish :(

Comment by Kragstomper

Finally caught this fish last night, at the tail end of a four hour fishing session at Winter's Breath Lake in Howling Fjord, fishing only Fangtooth Herring schools. I'd been fishing for it all week during the day and a couple hours at night after raids. All together I would say I spent a good 12 hours this week (roughly 2000 fish and other things caught this week) fishing for this damn fish . Don't give up tho, eventually you'll catch it. I had actually started to hearth, changed my mind and interrupted it, went back to fishing and caught it about 8 casts later. Salty Kragstomper yay! lol

Comment by thewrenchninja

In Soviet Russia, Herring is fishing for you!

Comment by Jomper

can you catch a one of the rare fish for the achievement on one character then mail it to another character and get credit on him too for it?

Comment by Jomper

You can NOT buy this or any other rare fish off the auction house and get credit for the achievement, you must fish and catch it yourself.

Bought a Dark Herring off the auction house for 200g and didn't get credit.

Comment by Frawki

Rogue Ambush with a... Fish?

Comment by BringmeaShrubery

I caught this fish on my first cast without even attempting to get it.I &*!@ed off a lot of people in my guild because they were still going for fishing achievements and I allready had caught a different extremely rare fish for it.I was just fishing each node randomly to get northrend angler and this beauty popped up. 1/20,000 chance psssh I fart in your general direction.

anyways, off to cut down the mightiest oak in the forest with this new weapon.

Comment by jxbeutl

After 1500 failed casts in Azshara I decided to try out something different, with a far more successful result... seems if you are going for Salty, this is where to do it!

"Salty Arondite"

Comment by statz

So, I'm wondering if they messed up the Dark Herring catch rates in this newest patch. Like many of you, I spent days upon days trying to catch one of these. But since the patch, while trying to get my turtle I have caught 5 of them in as many hours...

Comment by statz

So, I'm wondering if they messed up the Dark Herring catch rates in this newest patch. Like many of you, I spent days upon days trying to catch one of these. But since the patch, while trying to get my turtle I have caught 5 of them in as many hours...

Comment by gimpheala

I caught two of them in about 15 minutes of fishing in herring schools in howling fjord, with 390 fishing and no lures other than a +25 rod. Possibly 3.1 upped the drop rate on these?

Comment by Etta

I was fishing around Cauldros Isle and within less than 130 casts I caught 2 of these fish/daggers. It's too bad I already had the achievement attached to this rare fish.

Comment by Sincerity

Well... I'm interested... Madoran Server, (US) has been going up and down all night long. So I'm fishing for the turtle, but I figured I would do it in these schools to catch this fish... I am casting, and bam, the next cast, it's this fish. I have it set to auto-loot, and there is a pause- I think, God my compy froze (unlikely, I've got a fast one) and I lost the fish.

So, I'm going to place a bet, I'm 80% sure I didn't get this fish in my bag before the server crashed, and I am 100% sure if I ticket a GM they won't give it to me because of their mistake...

So- yeah. Just thought I would vent, I'll post the results when they happen.

So- here's the thing- when you catch it, pray blizzard doesn't mess up, because they won't help you.

Comment by tmptfate

As of Patch 3.1 day 2 (4/15/09), the drop rate for the Dark Herring is insane. It took me 24 casts to fish it up and then I saw 2 other people beside me fish it up while I was working on the turtle mount. This will probably be nerfed VERY soon, i sugjest you fish this up soon if you want it.

THIS ITEM'S DROP RATE IS CURRENTLY BUGED IN 3.1, FISH IT UP NOW IF YOU WANT IT!

Comment by Aelyn

See my screenshot for a real life /facepalm.

Comment by Kayen

You guys are not going to belive this but i swear! i was fishing in fangtooth herring pools (to get a turtle mount not the fish) but after like 8 minutes Dark Herring dropped! Amazing huh?

Comment by Sjiulk

I started fishing for this today, my goals being to catch this fish, maybe get the sea turtle mount, and farm a bunch of herring to cook. After a couple hours I had:

Didn't take too long, and the extra revenue from other items is nice. I just flew around Winter's Breath Lake and fished from pools, picking up tiger lilies as I went along. Be patient and good luck!

Comment by yrch69

Got mine after about 8 hours fishing Fangtooth pools. Just over 800 Fangtooth Herring caught, and about 100 non-herring catches (crates, water, and the occasional bonescale when I missed the pool).

Comment by kiwikie

i have 2 of these on my rogue, with lifestealing on each, best thing i ever did, made 2k honor kills already with these and i feel goooood, i catch them in the northern lake of howling fjord, just south of the alliance FP :))

Comment by Aelyn

And as far as the achievement goes, I almost peed myself thinking it was for the turtle mount.

T.T

Comment by izeen

well well, i took me only 8k fish to get this #$%^er, my statistic for Fish and other things cought is now over 10k (Izeen resto druid Spinebreaker EU) dont farm for this :P its not worth it, Take a good look Herring seeks your life! Indeed

Comment by Voljaa

Catch #34 in the schools north of Skorn.

I'd say this is probably the best place to farm for the Turtle too. Can potentially get both in the same lake :)

Most of these were fished from the schools north of Skorn, but a few (~10 casts) were caught in open water.

Thought I might add my observations, post 3.1.1. It appears as though the schools still have a higher chance to fish Dark Herring (comparing my statistics to the previous posts from other locations). My assumption is that Dark Herring is indeed fished instead of Fangtooth Herring, and therefore schools of fangtooth herring would theoretically give you higher chances, because you simply catch more fangtooth herring.

The evidence is somewhat shown by virtue of the fact that most of my casts yielded one Fangtooth Herring, one Pygmy Suckerfish, while the catch with the Dark Herring still included a suckerfish, but with a Dark Herring and no Fangtooth Herring.

...Not to mention, fishing from schools also gives one a chance to catch the Sea Turtle, as well. You may as well fish from the schools anyway.

Just my two cents. Obviously since this uses a small data sample, it's probably not the most reliable source, but I'm mentally combining the statistics of all anglers who fished from the schools.

Comment by phorx

I read all the comments that fishing in the lake north of Skorn is a perfect place for this and when I went to complete the last leg of The Edge of Winter I decided to give it a try.

I cast my line again and to my shock I caught one of these on my second cast and got the One That Didn't Get Away achievement.

Listen to what others have said! Fish these north of Skorn!

Comment by CtZer0

I have 3 of these fish, two of which were fished within 15 mins or so of each other, and 1 fished up on another day.

All of these fish were not fished up in the herring pools north of Skorm, so I do not believe it makes any difference where you fish for them.

Simply fly from north to south, hitting pools along the way. Try getting in the mindset that you're hunting a turtle, because we all know that if you think of, or hope something will drop...it won't.

Comment by scbandit4

It isn't caught in open water.

Comment by Bloke182

+1 to the people saying to fish in the lake above scorn.Decided to try it today while doing "The edge of Winter" quest, and got it on my 9th cast...

No doubt a great deal of luck was also involved, but from what other people have said, and my own experience, it does seem like a good place to try for the achievement.

Comment by Ithics

Was out fishing for my turtle in a Fangtooth pool when I happen to fish one out, second cast fished another one out. The chances of that happening are 1 in 10000 shot. The random number generator is mocking me. I want my turtle! T_T

Comment by arkoth

Have any Paladins been able to fish this up? having spent months on trying to get it (over 3000 casts now) i'm losing all hope and looking for another factor as to why this fish just won't hook. My suspicions are raised further because a warlock in my guild managed to get 6 within a few hours (patch 3.0.3) i've spent 4 hours fishing for it in exactly the same method and have noting but a few hundred Fangtooth Herrings and Pygmy Suckerfish to show for it.

Anyway, my theory was that because paladins can't use daggers and the item displays as red in your bags the item wouldn't drop for us. Plausible theory or has the elusive Herring driven me mad?

edit: i fished it up seconds ago from a herring pool in Winters Breath lake. total pre 3.0.3 casts: 2500 ish post patch casts: about 400.

Comment by thorrn

don't have a rate of the other fish caught.BUT caught 2 DH after 15mins of fishing. both caught in same school 5mins apart.

Comment by DivaDoomcookie

To give me own experience. I JUST caught this 10 minutes ago if even. I sat in for the long haul. Brought my Pole and my hat for free lures and got to work. I ONLY fished the Fangtooth Herring POOLS in the same lake you have to free the frozen chick for the argent tournament dailies... Needless to say within 2 circles of the lake I had the Dark Herring in my bags and i was off to a different task.

Comment by Smokingwolf

43th cast - fjord

Comment by derkrieger

This is kinda odd. Second time it happned to me . Caught this fish from a herring school in my 2 cast yea u read well 2.Also happened with the sewer rat which i caught in 12 casts. I use +30 fishing rod and +100 lure.Guess im just lucky :)Guess is all about a share CD spawn on all ppl that fish in that zone rather than urself

Comment by quidnunc

This bad boy has item level 187, making it currently the most powerful green in the game. Regular level 80 greens are only ilvl 182.

Possibly a reference to 187 being slang for murder?

Comment by aznthecapn

218 casts at the lake north of Skorn got my Dark Herring.

Comment by Mysanthropyc

hate me but i got it first cast from a herring pool :)

Comment by Cnac

I wanna ask you guys something. When the herring is "in sheath" is it on your belt, or like the fist weapons is hidden ?

Comment by toofaraway

I fished for about an hour in the Winter's Breath Lake in Howling Fjord. 223 fangtooth herring later & the dagger dropped.

Comment by Neuf

A lot easier than I thought.I started out looking for the Sea Turtle Mount, and read that I should fish for this at the same time since I hadn't yet completed the "One That Didn't Get Away" Achievement. Fishing only inland Herring pools in Howling Fjord I found 24 Fangtooth Herring. 16 Pygmy Suckerfish and 1 Bonescale Snapper (cast must have went stray from a pool without me noticing) before I caught the Dark Herring.

Thursday, May 14. 5:56AM Central.

Good luck fellow Anglers.

Comment by Namnalia

An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

Comment by mocanucatalin

The best way to get this is to fish in Winter's Breath lake north of Skorn,i got 2 of this in 3 hours ,why is the best way ? cus the spawn rate of the FangtoothHerring School is betwen 1min and 4 i guees and are like 6 or 7 schools around the lake ,and i got the turtle to :)

Comment by Lahm

3.1 has been out for a while now, it is the 18th of May as i post this, can i have any confirmation that this still is bugged? I have only just been researching the achievement so i only found out about this bug today.

Comment by rubino7

Comment by Natelikespie

Nothing says "Fear me" Like mutilating someone with a fish.

Comment by JoeR410

It would seem that blizz has either fixed the bug (assuming it was a bug) or have lowered the drop rate from the pools as of 3.1.2 since I've been fishing for a few hours now from the pools north of Skorn and have yet to see a dark herring.

Comment by lokomoko

Has anyone caught this since 3.1.2? I'm over 2k casts for this thing and nothing...

Comment by Hoddie

Comment by Bloodworms

Comment by AngusMacBeer

I fished two of them back to back after about 10 minutes of casting. Anyone know what enchant is best to put on fish besides 'Essence of Lemon'?

Comment by oldiron79

You must chop through the mightiest tree in the woods with A HERRING

Comment by dfvanden

Caught this after fishing up 980 Fangtooth Herring in Caldmere Lake schools. If only the Fangtooth food sold well.

Comment by blankira

I have fished over 2000 fangtooth herrings in the lake north above Skorn nothing yet...my method for the Herring and Turtle is the same..every single time my float moves..i have a optimistic view..only to be let down every time...good luck to the rest of you.

Comment by Scrambledegg

So how about I just spent four hours today (as well as the same a few other days) looking for the Dark Herring working towards my salty title. Well after about two thousand fish caught in the pool north of skorn, BAM! The achievement pops up. So I'm feeling pretty lucky!

So I decide to head over to Mr. Pinchy and try to get my 2nd to last Salty achievement. In my third pool I find Mr. Pinchy, and on my first try I get the magical crawdad. I thought I was extremely unlucky after spending well over 12 hours (In mulgore too) looking for the rare fish then I get both of these less than 10 minutes apart. Wow.

Just have to win the fishing tournament now!

Comment by Akario

@#$% YEAH SEA KING!

Comment by Kaveboi784

So nature is a druid's ultimate weapon, i knew they hate using barbaric weapons but using a fish from nature?really?.........

Comment by Nihilium

The best way to die ;

Being backstabbed by a rogue in a dress duel wielding fishes.

Comment by Arkke

If you're trying to catch this fish, you'd be crazy to do anything but fish from pools. I flew circles around Skorn in Howling Fjord, fishing from all of the pools I found, and wound up catching two of these fish in 150 casts. Took about 45 minutes to catch my first, and another 30 before I caught my second. I also walked away with a lot of Suckerfish as well.

A lot of comments on the One That Didn't Get Away achievement seem to indicate others are having the same success rate in this area. Don't be a sucker; fish it from a pool.

Comment by Chaws

I started fishing earlier this week when I got a bug about getting the turtle.

At this moment, my Fish Caught is 3472, about 3000 of which were in Northrend pools. Maybe ~2000 were in the Herring pools.

I just got the Sea Turtle, and a 2nd Dark Herring about 15 minutes later. The first dropped after probably 1500 casts in Herring pools.

Good luck and... *cringe at the horror stories of 18k casts...*

Now where's that first mate hat... bahaha

Comment by testdrug

Over 3,000 casts and no Dark Herring yet. The drop rate is definitely over-exaggerated by some posters.

Unfortunately, all this Fangtooth Herring despite being an applicable way of leveling up cooking, doesn't sell for crap on my server. Same goes with the Pygmy Suckerfish that nearly accompanies every catch (even though being a good regent to level up Alchemy).

My advice, if you're a cook, cook these because stacks sell much better to the vendor than stacks of Fangtooth and it takes only 1 to make 1...not to mention you can use the leftovers on your dailies or if you're lucky, AH them.

For reference...1 stack of Fangtooth Herring vendors for 1 silver 60 copper while making a stack of Pickled Fangtooth and vendoring will net you 60 silver. That's a fairly decent profit.

Comment by vaanvern

Maybe at some point it was Saurfang´s lost goldfish that got accidentally flushed?

Comment by Carobnica

Comment by Firedwarf

Remember posts often are a bit luckier than average, because people who catch it fast will post more often than people who haven't even catched it.

Posts from users are often over-exaggerated

Comment by Toldry

This should be a Heirloom item :3

Comment by damikesta97

lol i saw that movie last night =)

Comment by Hottyme

was fishing only in schools 45th cast got it :) Good luck this fish won't stop biting me :( wheres a enchanter to torture the dang thing when you need one :)

Comment by ernestomc

Sell it to the vendors for 15g 0p 12c

Comment by clambar

got it on my 50th cast around skorn in howling fordj.

Comment by Xanker

I'm at about 11000 casts on this guy ( didn't keep exact count, but it's pretty accurate ). Didn't get it yet. Fished for about 8000 on the little island in the middle of Howling Fjord, the rest in Winter's Breath Lake, about 50/50 in schools from the last one.

Starting to lose my mind as I've already won the tourney and I only need this one and Pinchy ( 1000ish casts on that one ) :(. Gah !

Comment by sunderkeenin

LOLActually just get DW these with fiery enchant.FLAMING FISH!but only if they fixed the glow =D

Comment by Louhiorotta

Comment by Horidance

6 hours and i got nothing, but the next day, it dropped 3rd cast. It's luck, my friends.

Comment by Grimlo

I know that everybody loves comments like this, but I snagged this bad boy on the 11th cast!

Comment by andriell

Hello

Now i did get This Achievement weehoo

I did as many fish in Howling Fjord, in the lakes over skorn and in the lake under Fort Wildervar. I did only fish in Fangtooth Herring School, did take me 1951 fish casts to finally get my Dark Herring

Comment by nebshura

Tried today for ahwile in both the open waters and herring schools around Cauldros Island in howling Fjord.Came up with:Bonescale Snapper (60)Fangtooth Herring (60)Pygmy Suckerfish (39)Glacial Salmon (28)Reinforced Crate (3)Crystalized Water (2)

No luck yet with the Herring, but I'll keep trying hope this helps

Comment by Tapuki

The "Herring seeks your life!" your life flavour is hilarious regardless but am I missing a reference here?

Comment by nosoup4crr

I levelled fishing on my 77 rogue alt today--the bulk of which was done in the herring pools in howling fjord. from level 200-300 (320-420), I fished up just over 300 fangtooth herrings with no dark herring. Despite being so low level, I still caught fish at about a 50%-60% rate. I burnt out pretty hard. 290-300, were taking about 15-18 casts to level. I'll keep trying until I hit 450. But, I sincerely hope it doesn't take too much longer to get one.

Comment by mysantrop

got it from fangtooth fishing pool after 20 fishes

Comment by MagicbEonar

They're now the Knights who say ikkee ikkee ikkee ikkee KAPOW!

Comment by Hottyme

Lol ya like the quote says it seeks your life so certain lives hes not interested in :P

Comment by djl1080

Comment by Arkelas

Comment by RantsiProduction

After 8hours of Fishing in Mulgore i gave up with 15pound snappersAnd had like 12 10Pound Mud SnappersAnd 8 Pound mudsnapper inventory and decided to go and try to howling fjord when many of mine friends suggested to go there.

on here i fished 1days only casting and casting without doing dailys etcand at last 3hours ago Got Dark HerringThx For all tips what you been giving rly helped

Comment by ryan6608

This was the last tough thing I needed to get Salty. I'd estimate it took me about 2000 casts. I had 1400 Fangtooth Herring left when I finished and I've been using Pickled Herring as regular food for a couple of weeks now.

Comment by Meldo

6000 casts in herring schools and no dark herring yet.

I hate RNG!

Comment by caslon

Finally got it tonight for my last achievement for the Salty title, at Winter's Breath Lake in Howling Fjord. Spent most of the time fishing Fangtooth Herring pools as suggested; total time according to fishing buddy was two hours and 55 minutes with a total of 384 successful casts. Winter's Breath Lake had the most Fangtooth pools and they seemed to spawn rapidly so there was no down time. Don't give up and good luck to those pursuing.

Comment by keladela

Recieved 2 seperated by 1 cast Today.

Comment by Asya

Scary thing is, dual wielding Dark Herring for PvP efficiently has been done, more precisely here. And might I add the lad is pretty darn good?

Comment by StumpyFury

Warning: Do not farm for the Dark Herring, because that WILL destroy your mental health. After 30+ hours of fishing for this mythical fish, I've decided that it's all a very cruel hoax and that everybody who say they've caught it are liars (no offense, but I hate you all;-)

Comment by lastplacewin

As of 15 minutes ago this bad boy is now mine. I already have a buyer on hold who has one and is going to pay decent coin to DW herrings.

GL to everyone else farming for this. For the record, my fishing route was the two northern lakes in Howling Fjord (I caught this one from the one below Fort Wildervar.

Daellon - Human Paladin of Khaz' Goroth

Comment by Feliciamarie

Is it just me or does the Dark Herring icon resemble Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean? :/

Comment by Ashendrake

Level 21 rogue, seeing how many fishing achievements I can accomplish at a low level:

I fished in the lake west of UK in Howling Fjord. I would usually die getting up the lift from VL and there is an aggro Shoveltusk that paths on the North Shore that would sometimes grief me when trying to get a pool near him. Needless to say, I fished naked and died maybe 50 times total (going back and forth to VL to mail fish etc).

So it can be caught by a low level. Fishing went from 300 to 429 while trying for my Dark Herring. I fished mostly the Fangtooth Herring pools but if I missed the pool during my first 500 casts or so or they weren't respawning fast enough, I'd just fish the lake.

No turtle yet. Guess I'll hang around a bit and see if I can land one.

Comment by ChanteezLe

Okay, i attempted to conquer this brain-melting quest, achievement.. whatever. I fished everywhere from the Winter Breath Lake just north of Skorm to around Valgarde. Im pretty much 50/50 when it comes to casting in pools and from what ive been reading it doesn't seem to matter whether you fish in pools or not, unless your trying to get the sea turtle too, then go after the pools... I have been fishing for a few hours now and so far this is what i got:

For a grand total of 1,3641,805 casts with still no Dark Herring. I will update as i continue on my conquest to get this damn fish.

As for equipment i am using the fishing hat and a fishing pole that has +25 fishing.. bringing my fishing skill near 550ish. Seeing that there isn't a level requirement to obtain the Dark Herring, i have stopped applying the lure to save myself some time. haha..

Comment by TandAshaq

I was also lucky just started this today fishing and caught it south of skorn I caught114 Fangtooth Herring76 pygmy suckerfish5 Crystalized water4 Reinforced crates1 dark Herring

total of 1 hour of fishing in howling fjord

Comment by Gabs71

Fished like 2 hours in the northern lakes of howling fjord, got bored,went and did WG and logged out afterthe next day i spent 3 hours in the same spots and finally got this bad boyhad a real roflmao when i read his description :D

Comment by DelayedReality

I am never....ever....getting rid of this dagger. I intend on sculpting it forever along with my toon's likeness on FigurePrints because of it's general awesomeness.

FEEL THE WRATH OF MY HERRING!

(I added Lifestealing to it. What could be better?)

Comment by Jiranty

I have been fishing Fangtooth Herring schools for a few hours at a time on several different days, and this is what I've got so far:

Comment by veXor

Comment by Magmarrax

Comment by Veryrarebear

I just got my herring about two minutes ago! After 1763 casts into the winter's breath lake and around skorn I started having trouble with an ally warrior ganking me while fishing. I promptly rez'd and proceeded to kill him 4-5 times. After that I didn't want to compete for fishing at the lake so I went down to Cauldros Isle. First cast into a school of herring and my achieve dings, dark herring caught and I am now Salty! Good luck everyone who is still going for this, it will happen eventually for you!

VRB

Comment by miave

i just got 2 (yes, two) dark herrings in 20 catches in the lake at fort wildevar...funny thing is that 1) i was lookin for the turtle, and 2) after 2000 catches each, i'm still looking for mr. pinchy and for thrall's gold coin -.-'

Comment by Sukaduk

Just fished this sucker up after a good week of farming for about 2 hours a day!

Note: I was only fishing in Fangtooth Herring pools to also try and get Sea Turtle

Good luck on anyone trying to get this!

Comment by Archimondexaf

Fished 467 times exclusively in Fangtooth Herring schools in Howling Fjord and caught him. Just know that the thrill of finally hearing that achievement sound is definitely worth the time commitment!

I also caught the sea turtle within my first 20 casts or so in HF.

Skill level DOES NOT matter. You can just as easily catch the Herring at fishing level 1 as 450. (Edit: Fishing skill doesn't matter as long as you are fishing in schools of herring, where you can't fish grey items!)

From the information on WH and other websites and from guildmates, my rough estimation is that this fishie is about a .2% droprate. Most anglers get this fish well under a thousand but often into the hundreds.

Good luck catching the herring! In the meantime, be prepared to clear tons of stacks of useless Fangtooth Herring out of your bags.

Comment by Discharger

Stuck to the lake north of Skorn and only fished from pools, in an attempt to go for the Sea Turtle at the same time.

Comment by Ambid

So I decided to go for this for the achievement seeing I won the fishing tournament and this is the last thing that I needed.

I have been fishing in HJF in the Herring Pools for a total of 46 hours now and have caught over 6000 fish and have made enough pygmy oil to fill every slot in a guild bank up and then some and I still have not gotten this thing.

I don't understand how people can get this within they time frame that they do because this SUCKS. I have fishing in all the right places from what I have read on here. They say fishing skill don't matter but when I am fishing I have maxed skill my hate my epic fishing pole and my boots. Which is more then enough.

If anyone could please point me into the right direction I would like that.

EDIT : I am still trying to get this one upside is I have been able to see the suckerfish for 25g a stack on my server but I would rather not deal with having to keep getting them and rather just get this achievement...This is the only thing holding me back from being oh sooo salty lol. I have been fishing only in the Herring pools but I still get nothing.

Comment by nightcrawler93

4th cast in the 1st school i saw in howling fjord and BAM!there it wasi just wanted to get some suckerfish

Comment by kimblehmoose

Been fishing for this thing for 2 days, just want to double check while i'm on a reasonable number of casts - 638 (yes, i get bored easily)

Is it just the schools of fish you can get this from, or can you catch it just from water in general too?

Comment by 3daysgrace

Herring seeks your life!

Comment by VelorienBWR

Here's a hopefully inspiring story for those of you trying to catch this fish. Having a lucky day in WoW doesn't always start out lucky.

I only needed three more achievements to get the Salty title: Mr. Pinchy, catching a rare fish (Dark Herring), and winning a fishing tournament.

Earlier today, I attempted to win the Kalu'ak fishing derby again. Unfortunately, I lost by literally 20 seconds at most. I was pretty bummed. Much later in the day, I went around in Terrokar Forest fishing for Mr. Pinchy, it was about a month or so since I last spent hours trying to fish him up with no luck, but I got really lucky and caught him on the 5th pool! I decided to test my luck and went to Howling Fjord to fish up a Dark Herring. I've surely done over a thousand casts for this fish with no luck whatsoever. But today, roughly 60 casts later, there it was!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to really put my luck to the test and cycle around The Storm Peaks in search of the Time-Lost Proto Drake.

Comment by keyhia87

I have been fishing for this SoB fish for atleast a full week now - 3-4 hours aday!

I am on 500 casts a day for this fish now and no luck! I did get the turtle mount on my second day and this is the last achievement I need for the Salty title...

I do not understand what I am doing wrong! My fishing skill is always between 500-600 and I fish open water and pools but I always stay at Winter's Breathe Lake - saying this, i've also spend more then enough time at Skorn and Cauldros!

My motivation for getting this fish - achievement is running very low! 5k casts is just not normal.....

(same goes for the captain rumsey ale recipe! 8 weeks now!)

Comment by kivlok95

So this fish is only catchable in the Fangtooth herring pools?

Comment by jijo

I have a question that's been bugging me. Is the drop rate higher if you fish in pools. Or is it even fishable outside any pools?

Comment by mrk56

lol I'm so lucky, i caught it after 37 casts:)

I Fished in Howling Fjords in the pools.

Now all i need is Homer's Mr.Pinchy and I will become Salty Vally:D

Comment by Grippo

Note: After extensive testing in Grizzly Hills, I can confirm that it is, in fact, impossible to cut down the largest tree in the zone with this.

I just hope I can get a shrubbery to drop :(

Comment by tinydeath

¨Herring seeks your life! Not your hooks!¨

Comment by Akinagate

I found out about this fish today actually because I was trying to get "One that didn't get Away" and I was trying places with the other kinds of fish when I decided to come out to try this fish because I figured a chance for the Turtle mount also. I went out to Howling Fjord and went to Caldemere Lake and fished the Fangtooth Hering pools for about and hour and a half none stop. After about that time I finally fished one up using just the pools around the lake to do so.

Comment by Briq

I'm starting to think this fish doesn't exist. I'm at around 8500 casts in 4 or 5 different locations in howling fjord and have yet to get this to drop. On top of that fangtooth and bonescale don't sell for crap on my server, cooked or not. I've been vendoring them at 1.4s a stack for probably the last 3000 or so.

Comment by Snore

Most people here are the lucky ones, don't think you will get this fish after 100 casts. I'm at 13 000 casts for the Dark Herring, both in pools and open water. I'm not giving up until I get this fish. RNG may suck for some, but I still think it's a good system, increasing the chanse to get it after 2000 or 4000 casts would make no sense.

Happy days, I wish you best of luck.

Comment by Snore

It does exist, keep it up and you'll get it eventually :)

Comment by Snore

No, you can catch it in open water aswell, as you catch a Fangtooth Herring every once and while.

Comment by Negi

Actually, Chuck Norris successfully divided by zero.

Comment by WowORC

i hate gnomes....i like ganking gnomes because they gank me....i like ganing gnomes with Assassin's Bladei will LOVE Ganking gnomes with this fish. now the gnome can say i was ganked by an orc rouge with a dang fish.

Comment by Masher360

Comment by JaeHunter

When you use model viewer on WoWhead for the first time in a while takes some time to load underwear...Female Draenei in underwear with a fish...Oh the possibilitys... Then again that's just frightning.

Comment by Hawtness

I'll keep it simple and sweet. This was my second time attempting to catch this fish. Both attempts taking around 1500-2000 casts each.

I have one huge tip on catching this fish. Have some sort of entertainment while you're fishing. Watch a movie, listen to some music, read a little while you listen for your bobber. Things like these always drop when you least expect it. :) Good luck on your fishing!

Dark Herring seeks your liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiife!

Comment by JoKo

Saw the article on wow insider and thought i'd try my luck with this achievement.Went to fjord, switched chars to craft something for a friend, switched back and flew to the nearest pool.First cast... :/ sorry guys

Comment by Spookachou

i'm well over 6000 fishes by now... no dark herring.rare drop, ok i can live with that... but SOME droprating would be nice.starting to loose my patience

Comment by Malpriest

Definitely should be enchanted with Lifestealing. This crap takes over your life, no?

Comment by cooldude123

I'm fishing at Winter's Breath Lake, and have cast over 5k times now and still have not got this, nor a turtle. Is winter's breath lake the best place to do this achievement or do other places have higher rates? I'm also just fishing in the lake and not going for the actual herring pools. Thanks!

Comment by Samesia

109.9 damage per second now :O

Comment by Arcke

Does it need to be fished from the pools? Or are all open waters fair game?

EDIT: Spelling and Grammar... Doh

Comment by nat1

100 casts for rat2000 for lobster500 for coins5000 casts so far for this $%#$ fish - not caught yet

Comment by tyqwaizjaah

this "easy to catch fish" took me days! fished in howling fjord in valgarde fangtooth herring pools. final countdown:

Fangtooth Herring: 1418

Pygmy Suckerfish: 907

Reinforced Crate: 70

Crystallized Water: 88

Bonescale Snapper: 129

Glacial Salmon: 46

Sea Turtle Mount: 1

Dark Herring: 1

Total Catches: 2660

... so yes, i did get the mount and the fish, but several times i thought about giving up. worth doing for the "Salty" achievement but definitely time consuming

Comment by Tenrai752

Was able to fish this up in the lake outside of Fort Wildevar within an hour along with a sea turtle! Guess I got pretty lucky. Good luck!

Comment by pewpewx

Can be disenchanted into Greater Cosmic Essence, Dream Shard or Infinite Dust...How the hell am i supposed to disenchant a fish anyway?

Comment by neoscorpio

Comment by vyaa

More anecdotal "data".

Fished for a total of about two hours, ranging from 8:30am server to 12 noon server. Fished ONLY Fangtooth Herring pools in Howling Fjord. Didn't keep track of exact number of casts, but I fished up 226 Fangtooth Herring as well as a handful of crates and crystallized waters. I figure less than 250 casts total.

I highly recommend only fishing Fangtooth pools rather than sitting in one spot fishing open water. Even though it's not exactly conclusive, it seems like the examples from all the various sources indicate that pools are the way to go.

Comment by EBannion

My contribution: After fishing only in Herring pools in Howling Fjord, I am at 1002 Fangtooth Herring, and no Dark Herring yet.

Also no turtle...

<crosses fingers>

I chose to use the herring pools because as far as I know this is the only place you can try for both a rare fish for 'One That Didn't Get Away' -and- a Turtle.

Comment by vpkilp

Caught it after ~200 casts in HF, followed path from lake below camp winterhoof to Utgarde keep and to lake below fort wildervar. No turtle though xD

Comment by nexod

Dark Herring confirmed as still ingame as of 4.0.3I was only fishing in pools

584 Fangtooth Herring1 Dark Herring (~0,17%)

Dark Herring replaced the Fangtooth Herring when it popped up.

Comment by slicerace

Just adding my data: 777 casts, on the last one was the Dark Herring. Lucky number, but technically I accidentally caught 3 Bonescale Snappers because my fishing bob wasn't quite in the pool.

Statistically, from my data alone, this means the Dark Herring has a drop rate of approximately 0.25%, with a 95% minimum credible interval of . To do this calculation, I used a uniform Bayesian prior on the interval 0 to 0.01, meaning that based on my previous information about this fish, I know the drop rate should be somewhere below 1% (really less than 0.5%, but I wanted to be conservative).

The difficult part of inference on this fish is that the data on Wowhead are usually the exceptional cases -- either someone gets it in only 50 tries and posts or someone has been searching for 5000 casts and hasn't got it yet; it's tough to find the data in between. Being as objective as I can, the case of Mookysolo getting ~1500 casts seems reasonable, as well as Sazuiz getting ~600 casts without the fish. There's another case where ztrapon got the fish in about 350 casts. Slyth got it in about 151 casts. Lukahn got it in 2196 catches.

These people seemed to have reasonable cast statistics that were collected by fishing *only* out of the pools, which is what I think is key for catching the fish. I also added in some other peoples' statistics, not named here, but who are in the thread & appeared to have caught only out of the pools (i.e. not many Bonescale Snappers). If I collect all this information using the product of Bernoulli distributions with a prior distribution uniform on 0 to 0.01, the distribution is approximately normal, so I get the drop rate as 0.107% +- 0.034%.

This suggests that the drop rate might actually be closer to 0.01% instead of the 0.02% figure floating around, but I suppose it depends on my ability to choose datasets objectively.

Comment by Harlin

Just an FYI to people trying for this fish or any of the ones from "The one that didn't get away" achievement. Since cata just came out...try searching for these fish while you are leveling the profession...at least you're getting something out of it even if you don't catch one of the fish. Also, try setting up pandora.com while you're fishing...it makes it much less annoying!

Happy Hunting :)

Comment by Ellacre

Fished him up in Howling Fjord from the Fangtooth Herring schools. 525 fishing with Nat Pagle's pole. Only took an hour and a half.

Comment by shelluna

i looked up where to fish here on wowhead and howling fjord was the spot to be...got the dark herring just after 300 fish

Comment by janelrobbins

I was fishing on the Kel' Thuzzad server in Grizzly Hills west of the Blackriver Logging Camp (26, 65) when I caught this dagger. It was a great suprise! I was fishing in a Glacial Salmon School and threw the line out there one more time after the school was gone and up comes this beauty! I'll include a picture. Yay!

Comment by Zydell

If you keep all your caught fangtooth herring in your bags, use this macro to calculate the chance that you'd have caught it by now assuming a 0.02% catch rate:

Comment by CelestialNova

Comment by pikamaster

Comment by dualwieldpillows

Confirmed that Dark Herring is still dropping as of patch 4.0.6 and YES! you do not have to be maxed lvl fishing in order to get it to drop. I fished my Herring up with only the skill lvl of 176. but i was using Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat that adds +75 points of fishing skill. As an added note this bad boy was fished up at Valgarde in Howling Fjord. Hope this helps someone.

oh forgot to mention that it was fished out of a Fangtooth Herring School.

Comment by xadama15x

Spent a while circling Winter's Breath lake in Howling Fjord clockwise. If you take your time, the pools usually respawn in time for you when you go full-circle. This guy dropped on cast 208. (Effective Fishing Lvl 635).

Comment by Darthnixa

I'd prefer a herring that doesn't seek my life.

Comment by danny279

Followed the advice of many and ran around Winter's Breath Lake in Howling Fjord fishing the Fangtooth Herring Schools. After about a couple hours, and LOTS of fish, I got the Herring. Thank you to those that recommended it.

Comment by arkibus

I have always hated drop chances in WoW. Hard work should be rewarded more instead of just luck.

Good luck to all who are trying to find a dark herring.

I feel compelled to note the inherent self-contradiction in someone saying, in essence, "luck is stupid" and then, "good luck to you".

Unless this is one of those times when the intended meaning is the reverse of what is said and it should be translated as, "I hope you fail miserably in your attempt to rely on random chance to fulfill your desires just as has happened to me." I certainly don't think this the case, as the post doesn't read like one of those bitter diatribes written by an impotent old man sitting in a dark corner of a dingy shack.

But I could be wrong about that.

please note this is actually intended as a slightly humorous response and in no way reflects the author's true feelings about the original post. in truth, the author has a great deal of respect for the original post and appreciates the insight provided by it. thank you.

Comment by Irissa

Comment by Ainasni

I've been trying to catch these since WOTLK came out. Not every day, but when I did, I was fishing for hours and hours, mostly at the lake near Camp Winterhoof.

Today I decided to give it another chance, but trying the lake near Fort Wildervar. Got it on my first cast! I nearly rolled of my seat from happiness.

In total, over all these months, I've cast more than 6000 lines without luck. Keep on trying though, one day you'll catch it!

Comment by MrB153

You're all going to hate me...but my girlfriend just fished up the Dark Herring out of the 3rd pool....let me say that again....her THIRD POOL. Yeah...the kicker is that's the last achieve I need on my main to get the "Salty" title>.< G f'n G

Comment by Stepheeydame

Comment by Stepheeydame

I just got mine at Cauldros Isle at 2nd pool with 7 casts and i fish this one with 525 + Kalu'ak fishing pole + 100 attached to pole = boom! what a lucky day....

Comment by Aeni

The % chances are PER ATTEMPT and not indicative of the overall rates per individual experience. I could go out tomorrow and throw out 10 casts and get one. Someone else could throw out 40,000 casts and not get one. There is no mechanism in the game which tracks individual performance and then "throw you a bone" if you've been at it long enough with no success. I think that the misconception here is that if you cast it just the right number of times you'll get a drop. For all we know, the drop for a day was randomly chosen so that whoever happen to cast at that time will receive it /shrug.

It's all about luck. Happy hunting folks.

Comment by Balasarius

Finally got this after approximately 800 herrings. 570 skill, no lure equipped at the time of the catch.

No turtle, either. :(

Took around six hours, I think. I watched HBO GO on my iPad most of the time.

Still beats Archaeology.

Comment by Roayal

I caught 2 in Dragonblight, Indule village(41,66). I decided to throw it into water, because Corrupted Ragers looked hungry(but i didnt know if they like those herrings) Good appetite Ragets :-)

Comment by Casserolle

The Herring seriously smells, you'll better disenchant it - before it seeks your life.

Comment by Andreweth5

Okay, so this is my first ever post. Hopefully I'll be able to make a better contribution on other topics in the future, but Im'a start here for now :P

I've been fishing for this 'un for a while now, and it's soul draining work. I've decided to hit 3 birds with one stone (yes, 3) whislt I aim for this sucker. I'm fishing from the pools in Howling Fjord, in the lake to the North. This means I can get the Dark Herring, the Sea Turtle and also work towards getting the guild achievement That's a Lot of Bait. (Which, I may add, will also grant me the last recipe I need for Iron Chef). The only downside is the fish are pretty worthless at this stage, I'd much rather be fishing in Fathom Eel pools ¬_¬ Anyhow, I can move onto those if I get this damn elusive fish soon.

Here's my data for now:

Fangtooth Herring - 523 835

Pygmy Suckerfish - 362 564

And about 2 stacks worth of crates/water, and odd other fish which I vendored.

Note: I fished almost exclusively in pools, 'cept the odd time I mis cast and couldn't be bothered to recast so it went into the pool xD

Anyway, I'm off to the drown my sorrows for now. Will be back later to continue my search, so will give an update :)

Okay so here's an update: Finally caught the damn thing! It was my second serious sitting, working in the herring pools, again. Few hundred more fish and it pops up when I least expect it. Seemed like it took forever, but considering my numbers, I'm rather lucky compared to some. I really do feel for the folk who go into the several thousand. And hate those who go into the several... tens xD A guildie got his on the fishing daily, annoyingly ¬_¬ Also, I never caught thturtle mount, either. But I suppose this now means I can work on that in some Cata pools, which will bring in some gold.Good luck to anyone else going for this. :)

Andreweth - Moonglade

Comment by Synrithh

I wonder..... could this be used to Transmogrify in patch 4.3? Would be kinda awesome! (it has stats so, why not?)

Comment by Danteus

So I can say you don't have to be high level to get this. Fishing in Howling Fjord on my level 14 hunter, on Wyrmrest Accord, I got the Dark Herring.

Comment by Phizzix

I'm going to transmogrify my daggers to look like this. Thank you blizzard!

Comment by Antimere

Getting ready for 4.3 and collecting up deadly fish for my Rogue to transmogrify. I flew around the Howling Fjord starting at the lake north of Utgarde Keep, through the rivers and around Caldemere Lake and Winter's Breath Lake fishing only in Herring pools. Probably around 40 minutes and caught 227 fish before I got mine. I would give you the breakout, but you wont really care if this is what you're looking for. Ended up catching it in Caldemere Lake at 5%, 1 of 19 fish caught in the area.

Comment by Khedrak

Last I checked Transmogrification does not work with weapons. Only exception is ranged weapons. (Bow, crossbows and guns)

Comment by Khedrak

Also

This is what El's Extreme Anglin' site says. (elsanglin.com)Dark Herring - Caught from open inland water in Grizzly Hills and Howling Fjord (including unnamed coastal areas), and Fangtooth Herring School. Observations suggest catch rates in open water are no better than Old Azeroth open water - probably around 1/10,000. Fangtooth Herring School seems to give a better chance of a catch. Pools can also be fished efficiently at fishing skill 1, and there is a chance to catch a Sea Turtle mount.

This is what happened to me.My guild only needed 4796 fish for the that's allot of bait achievement. I was the only one online at the time. Was after 2am server time most are in bed. I had fished in the Fangtooth Herring Schools and caught 4243 fish and got the Turtle mount. Later I finished the guild achievement thats alot of bait. I then tested my new mount then put down my mushroom chair for %^&*s and giggles and was going to fish till the chair despawned. (NO Fangtooth Herring School's) I got the Dark Herring after 34 fish caught.

So I guess for me open water was best to get the dark herring.

Comment by LadySuncrusher

was lucky tonight when i said to my partner lets try for the achievement ... best place to fish is in Howling Fjord ... i got the turtle in a fishing pool in the river near Fort Wildervar and the Dark Herring in a fishing pool in the lake near Camp Winterhoof ... a few minutes later my partner got his catch by fishing in open waters next to me ... good luck and happy fishing

Comment by jd234

I'm a bit of a mathematician, so I like to see how the RNG odds stack against me. There seem to be no concrete ideas about the drop chance on this guy, but some have suggested 1/2000 and 1/10000. If this is true you can calculate the cumulative probability that you will catch this. This will never reach 100%, each cast has a fully independent 1/2000 chance. However, cumulative probability does increase with time. It can be calculated as 1-((1-)^castnumber).

Personally, I find the 1/10000 a bit unlikely. Blizz is mean, but that seems VERY mean.

Note that nothing is guaranteed. With a 1/2000 drop rate all this says is that if you caught the fish in <1400 casts you are lucky, if you caught it in >1400 fish you are unlucky, and if you caught it in exactly 1400 casts you have average luck.

Comment by Coriadin

101 Fangtooth Herring20 Crates20 Crystallized Water

Still no Dark Herring.

I'm also one of those unlucky people that has fished in pools since wrath released, catching anywhere from 3000-5000 fish and still no Sea Turtle Mount :(

Comment by beffyla

I have been trying to catch this fish up for the last hour to no avail. I'm glad to see some have caught it so quickly.

Comment by wtbjared

The Dark Herring cannot be currently transmogrified with your daggers. My hopes and dreams of dual wielding fish, dashed! Petition Blizzard, this needs to be changed!

Comment by Quesen

One cannot transmogrify a dagger into looking like this as of 4.3Ruined my day :(

PvPing Vs. Restodruids would've gotten a lot funnier if it had been able (Obvious reference?)

Comment by Darkthing

So THAT'S why has shadow resistance....

Comment by Daerken

First time poster, but I won't lie, this achievement is one of the most annoying ones out there for The One That Didn't Get Away. I FINALLY got mine. Statistics below.

Bottom left of Winter's Breath Lake where the lake empties westward, moving all the way around in a circle until I reached the same place, then turned around and took the direct south lake path towards Skorn. Once I hit the new river, I followed the south bank all the way past Utgarde Keep and down to Valgarde until I reached the southern emptying point of that lake. I then circled around the eastern bank, having already come down the west, and followed the riverbank up the eastern side all the way to Winter's Breath Lake again and stopped at the western emptying point.

This path takes long enough that by the time you get back to the starting point, the pools will have mostly respawned. The lowest pool count per cycle I had was 5, top of 14.

Good luck ladies and gentlemen. RNG sucks, but you can beat it!

PS: This *IS* the best way to get the The One That Didn't Get Away achievement. The numbers are just amazingly in your favor fishing this zone. I still don't know if it can only be fished INSIDE the pools, or any water, there are posts either way. My post however, was fished expressly inside the pools. I hope this helps. Good luck again!

Comment by Zugzugx

So I fished this up the other night to Mog it for my rogue, I mean c'mon who doesn't want to run around shanking people with duel fish. Sadly to my realization you can't transmog your daggers to fish, and apparently you can't use the brewfest shanker either. WHY have these awesome items out there if you can't transmog them. DAMN YOU BLIZZARD! I was so upset, on the upside it did take me only 1 1/2 hrs to get it with less than 200 casts. in HF North of Skorn like the rest of the people who got it. except I got it in a river next to some rock in a pool.

Comment by bluechipps

I thought the whole transmog thing was supposed to be "fun"... makes you wonder what their reasoning is behind these kinds of restrictions.

Comment by leetnoam

Spent all day yesterday farming for this (22/12/2011).

Got the Sea Turtle pretty quickly but no luck on Herring.Went to bed at 4A.M

Woke up at noon, did dailies came to Howling preparing myself for another long haul of fishing and on the first cast Dark Herring :D

Comment by baygul

Finally got this about an hour after winning the Kalu'ak Fishing Derby, gaining me the "Salty" title. Caught from a pool in the lake north of Skorn (Winter Breath's Lake). Alas, no turtle.

Comment by serplanter

Just caught mine :D over 1000 casts later. 4th cast this morning, i was supprised ^^

Comment by kaalla

He does exist !

After 787 casts in pools at Winter's Breath Lake (41,23) in Howling fjord I finally caught him. Got the One That Didn't Get Away

Comment by iamjoe

Comment by Yswar

Hmm... I'm fishing this for a week now and still nothing. I got maximum fishing, it's a bit weird, how can I be so unlucky?

Comment by Quelana

Spent 1 hour and 11 minutes fishing and caught this on what was going to be my last cast for the night. Pretty pleased with myself! I don't know exactly how many casts it took but I've got 121 Fangtooth Herrings and 86 Pygmy Suckerfish sitting in my bags so it should be easy to work that out if anyone's still working on catch rates.

Comment by Monthy

It is said that he´s cought in any open water where you can find Fangtooth herring...I cought him today in, Howling Fjord-Caldemere Lake, south of Fort Wildervar, north of Giants Run.

After 1,3k casts in open water I remebered how I cought him the last time, by accident on an other mission fishing in schools.Went to the exact spot did one cast in a school and got him. School and bobber at 68,10-20,83.

Don´t waste your time on open water, only fish in Fangtooth-schools.

Went back and checked my screenshots of all ach. Last time I got him here on the 60:th cast.Same lake and spot. But then only poolfishing and only in the east corner of Caldemere Lake.When will I ever learn to check these things before going on an quest I´ve done before:( I´m such a timelooser. 1,3k casts in open water for nothing:(

Comment by Hammlid

Sob Sob Sob - I've been fishing for this one on and off for months without any luck (I currently have 80+ stacks of Fangtooth Herring on the AH). I've spent 99% of my time fishing the lake at Fort Wildevar, exclusively fishing in Fangtooth pools in the hope of getting a turtle mount as a consolation prize.

In frustration I asked a GM if the stock of Dark Herring had been depleted in this lake and he confirmed that there is an equal chance of them being caught anywhere a Fangtooth herring can be caught - open water or pool.

In total I think (Fishing buddy splits the lake into 2 zones and I am fishing across a desktop and 2 different laptops depending on where I am) I've just crossed the 4000 casts mark. Damn that random number generator :(

On a positive note I did catch a Blacktip Shark in the same area and won the fishing contest a month or so back :)

Good luck fellow fisherman - this is the last step I need for Salty!

EDIT: Finally! With over 3000 Fangtooth Herrings currently for sale on the AH I've caught one, a week after catching the turtle. I stuck with fishing fangtooth pools around Wildevar and it paid off in the end. According to fishing buddy I have clocked up over 5 days of game time fishing....now to get back to that Insane title....

Comment by NubieGTAS

Winter's Breath Lake is STRONGLY recommended by me, you can circle it and there are NO hostile mobs, I'm doing this on a level 20 twink and got the Dark Herring just moments ago while going for the Sea Turtle, and I caught it in a school of fish near the white mountains.

Caught around 900 herrings before this came up. You get the Achievement ONCE you loot it in your bag, not when you fish it up

Good luck all, but anyone have a good price for this? Not sure if the buyout price for it on Wowhead is reasonable for this awesome fish ^^

Comment by Gongshoww

Just caught my Dark Herring today. Here is a slight number and time crunch:

Ps. Great fast respawn rates in the lake never had to wait for pool respawns. Farming was consistent :)

Comment by Gadileck

I started working on getting this fish for the achievement and for transmog 20 minutes before I caught it. After reviewing the comments here, I planned on fishing strictly in Fangtooth Herring Schools as the drop rate seemed to be higher. Caught it in the third pool not 16 casts into my potentially life-long pursuit of the elusive Dark Herring. Now to get one more..

Comment by Vythrin

Are these daggers Transmoggable? If so this is the BEST TRANSMOG EVER

Comment by Thetinyone

I got my Dark Herring VERY quickly from Winter 's Breathe Lake

Less than 75 casts and it was mine.

With 525 + 75 Fish.

Comment by Sarkahn

I find the quality of this item is vastly improved when you read the tooltip in a very sinister voice and put some real emphasis on "life".

"Herring seeks your LIIIIIFE."

Comment by Aquifel

If we try to judge the droprate on this item by comparing fangtooth herring drops compared to dark herring drops ( 716 / 737439 ), we get a droprate of about 1 in 1000, which should be pretty close to the expected droprate (comments on these pages are pretty close to that) if only fished from herring schools (in theory). This is the only way i can think of to get an estimate of the droprate for this one.

Comment by Talaissar

Lame found out I can't transmog my daggers to look like fish.

Comment by eggknawg

Selling a Dark Herring on Emerald Dream (US)

Wossull - 70 Human Rogue

Comment by Zethram

Got the Dark Herring from fishing around the lake at Fort Wildervar (Howling Fjords)Took me about 3 hours of fishing (560 fishing)

Comment by kayakira1

did catch the dark herring in only 7 casts in the lake north of Skorn in HF44/23

Comment by WorgN6

Do not pay the obscene amounts of gold for this that some scam-artist AH barons attempt to sell them for.

YOU CANNOT TRANSMOGRIFY THIS

Comment by Sushinomnom

Several thousand casts in Herring pools over several months finally yielded the elusive bugger. Funny thing is...I had just gone back to fishing for it after winning the Kalu'ak Derby for the first time. Dropped from a pool north of Valgarde. It does exist!

Comment by Mo202

Today I managed to fish this up after around 200 catches, I fished in the lake above Skorn in Howling Fjord. Around I fished in the water for around 100 catches with no luck then moved onto the pools, after about 100 more catches I managed to catch this. Perhaps the drop rate has been increased? Or was it just luck.

Too bad I can't get Salty until they enable fishing tournaments again :(

Comment by Wamakaska

I started working Winter's Breath Lake in Howling Fjord on 11/28/12, about when 5.1 was released looking for the dark herring. Here are my recent totals to date with out getting one as yet.

Bonescale Snapper: 2395Fantooth Herring: 3907 (most of these are from pools fished when they are present, I keep circling until they are gone and then wait until they start to respawn and start again)Glacial Salmon : 864

I think something may have changed as this number of catches without getting one is well outside of the statitical data present so far with a .06% drop rate. This drop rate published here for Howling Fjord would indicate a 1/1667 drop rate. I am currently at 7166 and nothing. Even is I do get one soon, the current stats would seem to be very inacurate. It would be helpful to see the raw numbers by patch. A brakedown by when patches were installed could be helpful in idenifying bug to report as well. I would suspect that CRZ has had a possible impact on these sorts of stats. That is near impossible to tell with lifetime data stats and no ablility to see if there is a change over time. I just thought it was an idea worth floating out there for discussion.

Edit: Add an additional 2703 fish to this lake since I posted this. There is something drastically wrong with the posted statisical of .06% - if this fish even still in the game as catchable.

Comment by IAmAtomica

Try the Fangtooth herring school, just off the southern tip of Cauldros Isle.

Comment by Jessers

Catching this only took me 44 casts, i almost cried..

Comment by EvilGeld

do you have to click a confirm looting box for this guy?or is that removed from fishing items in general now?

Comment by adaptoadlet

Finally caught mine today (April 4th at 8pm server time) after 7900 casts in the Howling Fjord. Mostly in Winter's Breath Lake, a mix of pool and open-water fishing. The Cast That Caught It was from a pool. I am now Salty!

Comment by Yaije

Not usable for transmogrification purposes.... really? As of 5.3, found it in one of my character's bank slots and went off trying to mog it. same issue as if I was trying to mog some lvl 60 epic.

Comment by Trapformer

I have fished approximately 24 hours for this fish, following the elsanglin guide. I've fished in about 4k pools and have caught around 8k fish. So far I've made 6k gold off of the ore/skins/cloth and fish sales on the AH. I still have mailboxes FULL of the damn things.

3 things have yet to happen since I started this: 1. Catch a dark herring 2. Fish up a turtle mount 3. Get laid....

I now spend all of my free time trying to catch this fish as it's my last achievement required before i get my Salty title.

I should add my fishing is at 715.

Comment by deose

Has anyone caught this thing since MoP has come out? I have fished up over 850 Fangtooth Herring, and almost 1000 casts total so far, and still havent gotten anything. All in (or on the edge of) Fangtooth Herring Schools. With a fishing skill of 725 (600+Bonuses), and a Fishing Chair & Anglers Fishing Raft for funsies, I am starting to feel like this got removed from the game. I'll post back if I get it eventually, but any words of encouragement from 5.0 + would be helpful. I am fishing in schools in the lake near Camp Winterhoof in Howling Fjord, Northrend. This is the last thing keeping me away from Salty.

Comment by Tanddrelia

Comment by woodshed

Just wanted to add my two cents, on 11/17/2013 spent 2 hours fishing around lake by Fort Wildervar and got the Dark Herring for my Salty title. So your mileage may vary but don't give up

Comment by qzr87

I caught mine after about 120 catches and alot of Fangtooth Herring and Pygmy Suckerfish. The place i caught it is to the right of Utgarde Keep at a bridge in a shiny new- spawned pool. My luck seems to be good today - 2 Mr. Pinchy after 75 catches within 10 catches of each other and then this!

Comment by Nobb

Comment by abitsick

- No lures. No fishing pole. No fishing skill boosts of any kind.- Fangtooth Herring pool at Winter's Breath lake (everyone's favorite spot).- In total, over 12000 casts, BUT...- ... Only 1400 in the last few days of trying, since it was the last achievement I needed.- Still no Sea Turtle. Will be fishing MoP daily pool spawns instead for that.

Just posting to bolster your confidence. Don't give up. It's still in there as of the date this was posted.

Biggest tip? Just keep doing it, and distract yourself from the fact that you're doing it any way you can. Chat with people, queue for things, etc. Troll in general chat, or whatever you have to do to keep your sanity. I did arena and random BG queues for 3 days during.

So, I guess I'm not as lucky as others. Initially, I started fishing in schools, but switched to open water after 200 Fangtooth Herrings.I tried all the areas in Howling Fjord, but most of all the north western lake. I guess I just liked it more.It took roughly 130 hours of casting, but I did manage to fish the Dark Herring in the end.

Comment by Phaythe

Confirm catch on Alleria server, about 20:00 server time. Caught it just east of the Steel Gate in Howling Fjord, yellow dot pinpointed on the shown map to this link.

I read through most of this blog and figured I'd be in for the long haul on this, but was an extremely lucky day fishing, been a lucky week, and believe this was the last of my luck on fishing for a while. Typically farm most of my own mats, have leveled all professions and capped rep for Panda recipes, and started looking at lingering items. The fishing achievement with this catch was the last. I caught the turtle in Krasarong Wilds earlier this week, and did the fishing tourney at Booty for the very first time today, and placed second, looking to win the BOA heirloom ring. This was my final luck, goes in three's, right?

From the blogs, I went with the common sense factors: this is a herring, fish in herring areas; fish in pools; fishing skill should be at or above the area fishing. I have several toons that had this lingering quest, but I used my capped fishing, priest, to be able to hover over water, and went to Fjord, caught on 5th cast. That was just pure luck of the draw. Some are lucky right away, others takes time, but for a farmer that skips the AH prices and is self sufficient to carry multiple toons, I recommend to use the common sense factors and you should be able to catch this in a fairly reasonable time. In turn, you have vendor trash or cooking materials, or if you have an alchemist, mats (you catch Pygmy), depending how you look at it, and you will level fishing. If you are looking for the turtle as well, definitely keep to the pools, you may turn that up also.

Comment by Velexy

After many years of going for this achievement (Overall the Salty title) I finally got it today. I thought I would post recent information on it because I had a hard time finding any up to date information (Patch 5.4.8).

For me the biggest thing was finding out with what skill I could catch this fish. Since many of the fish for the achievement (One That Didn't Get Away) required having a very low fishing skill and were unobtainable if you were higher fishing then the suggested.

Over all with a skill of 600 fishing it is possible to acquire the Dark Herring.

I caught it at approximately 2,200 casts in Howling Fjord. I flew between the lake under Camp Winterhoof and For Windervar. I fished all of the pools in one then switched back and fourth between the lakes. I spent about 4 days and about 3-7 hours per day. Overall I spent 32 hours fishing for this item (I'm one of those intense people who need to finish before starting something else).

I know its very scrambled information. I'm not too good at explaining. I hope that it does somewhat help people with 600 fishing!

I'm so happy with my Salty title.

Comment by gambrah

I just caught my Dark Herring while fishing in a Fangtooth Herring Pool at Winter's Breath Lake in Howling Fjord. I have been after this achievement for 2 weeks, however in 10 minutes of fishing in the fangtooth pools I got it. I've fished hundreds of times in lakes of Goldshire, Tedrassil, & Ironforge going for the 15 lb catfish... but never caught one. Perhaps my RNG persistence finally paid off.. or perhaps this fish and this location has a higher payoff percentage. As some people have such little luck, it would seem I just got lucky... but if you haven't tried going for Dark Herring in Howling Fjord. I think it's time you try. Just call me Salty!

Comment by Willemsii

To fish up the Dark Herring, i need to fish it in open water instead of the pools?

Comment by revenant1245

So I'm not sure if they buffed the drop rate or I'm just super lucky. Because after seeing all these comments and dreading the farm I ended up going on anyways and started fishing away. I caught the Dark Herring and got my Salty title in less than 40 catches!

I was planning to keep going until Warlords released; so to anyone else who needs the achievement I strongly suggest you go ahead cause you never know if you'll get it super fast like I did!

Comment by vapers

Drop rates are not buffed.

This is the most tedious thing I've done since reactivating last year.

867 herring from pools, no catch yet.

Update:

DMF just finished, was using the 75+night crawler method for Steelscale Crushfish. No like on 13xx casts.

Went back to Dark Herring today, snagged out of a pull on cast 877.

Woot!

Comment by czefir

I tried fishing in open water and pools all over Howling Fjord but finally caught it from a Herring pool in Winter's Breath Lake. I didn't keep track of casts or fish count, but total time spent in Howling Fjord was 6 hours plus sidetracks to try for other rares (2 hours in Azshara, 2 hours in Swamp of Sorrows, 1 hour in Mulgore, 2 hours in Blasted Lands). Was really starting to get frustrated. Just keep going and you'll get it eventually!

Fishing skill of 600. No special poles or items used.

Comment by Monfernoo

Finally after 3000+ casts, I was able to obtain this.Farmed it in everyone's favorite spot, Winter's Breath Lake.

Comment by Vetlesan

I know this is a pretty douchy thing to do, but I just got it after 4 throws and wondered if the droprate has changed? Was ready to stay up all night for this, but it only took two minutes :sEdit: By the dislikes I assume no. Sorry for rubbing it in!

Comment by Hiljentaja

I just fished up this beauty after 774 casts in Winter's Breath Lake. Haven't seen the turtle yet tho. Back to fishing I guess...

- Salty Vihs

Comment by Cavisholm

905 Fishing, 3400~ casts in Winters Breath Lake, open water, did not move for pools.

Tip: Darkmoon Firewater reduces gathering time, so it can be helpful in long farming sessions. I used it for the majority of the time, but not during the entire fishing session. I was not using it when I caught the Herring.

You can do it, just stay positive and distract yourself in between casts so you aren't bored out of your mind!

Comment by Mixern

In case anyone wonders, and want to add this to their appearance tab. You CAN NOT transmog this item. You never could. Just wanted to point it out, before anyone buys this thinking they found a unique transmog. Save your gold.

Comment by ohvist

So... we went from Slapping your enemies with Fish...to Stabbing them with Fish......Makes sense to me!

Comment by Joker1313

I don't understand why we can't mog this...it's green...

Comment by Redfish1190

Just fished up my Dark Herring after a few hours of fishing. Moved around between Stone Bull Lake in Mulgore and Winter's Breath Lake in Howling Fjord, somewhere around 800-1000 casts I reckon. Caught a Dark Herring at Winter's Breath Lake fishing in open water, not in a pool. Fishing level 860 with Underlight Angler rod. I was watching a movie on second monitor to pass the time. If you are superstitious and think you can change your luck, I was watching Shooter, with Mark Wahlberg.

And now for that dang turtle.

Tight lines,

Salty Redfisher

Comment by Jesamyn

Finally caught mine after around 2000 casts. It came from a Fangtooth Herring pool in Winter's Breath Lake, though I also fished in the other usual culprits - down the river to Cauldros, back up to Caldemere Lake. The cast majority of my fishing was in Winter's Breath, though.

I worked on this on several characters. My main with maxed fishing has the Underlight Angler, Nat's Hat, and gloves with +5 fishing. My alt that worked on it most has a Kaluak Fishing Pole and Weather-Beaten Fishing Hat, and 500+ fishing.

The character that finally caught it was using a Bone Fishing Pole, no lures, and a can of worms bobber. She had 466 fishing skill.

Comment by Dedra

Caught today at Winter's Breath Lake (north of Skorn) in Howling Fjord. Fished out of a Fangtooth Herring school. Level 800 fishing using Underlight Angler.Had been trying Mulgore for about 30 minutes, logged out. Tried a few different areas in Howling Fjord in fangtooth herring schools and open water, all up probably spent about 2 hours in HF. Primarily fished for this to complete One That Didn't Get Away Now to check AH for current prices on it and decide whether to keep for xmog or sell :)Good luck!

Comment by dsmith551

Caught today in Winter's Breath Lake. I was on the fast eastern part of the lake in between the two rock formations and where the land pushes into the lake just a bit. I was using a Bone fishing pole, no lure, no Fang Herring pool. Fishing level 100. My lure and pool had both just expired and I decided to cast a few more times. I had been farming it off and on for about 3 weeks.